Roads
by SagelynnBautista
Summary: Over a year ago, John Cena found his little sister and learned how to be a brother. With her working backstage for the WWE, what kind of relationship do they have now? And who is this madman who secretly wants him to pay for becoming champion?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

'Would you look at her,' he thought to himself. 'Never thought she'd really be one of us. Not with the way she was when I found her.'

He sat back in his chair, sipping on the orange juice that he was hoping would help him slake his oncoming cold. It always started with those first few sniffles and that annoying, sporadic tickle at the back of one's throat. He had been counting on the extra dose of vitamin C to head the germs off at the pass when he opened the bottle, but now he barely tasted it. He had been sitting at a table in the corner of catering watching her for the past 10 minutes. She had been giggling with Jeff and using her spoon to sling peas into Kofi's open mouth across the table.

"Ooooh! Twenty points!" Jeff raised his hands in triumph and proclaimed in his lazy southern drawl.

"Twenty? She totally missed!" Phil countered. He was watching the scene from an arguably safe distance while drawing the trademark "X" across the knuckles of his wrist tapes. "Poor Kofi's gonna lose an eye!"

Jeff proceeded to put on his most innocent face. "But I thought we were aiming for his eyes!"

The scene sent her into another fit of giggles and he grinned to himself from across the room, shaking his head slightly at their antics. His coworkers had a way of bringing out the inner child in each other and he wouldn't have it any other way.

As he watched, he thought back to the person she was when he first met her and, oh, it seemed so long ago. Much longer than the year it had been. Or, maybe, year and a half? Who knew? So much had happened since then; some bad, some good, mostly confusing but well worth the trip. Back then, straight out of foster homes and abusive relationships with parental figures, she had been timid and untrusting, barely making it on her own in a city that showed no mercy to the orphans thrust upon it alone on their 18th birthdays. It amazed him that she had survived her childhood at all. The uncertainty, the abuse and the lack of love. He smiled to himself as he looked at her now. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed. She had gained weight in all the right places while color burned bright in her cheeks. Over the months she had grown stronger, developing a true sense of pride in herself. But most of all, she was loved. Oh, yes, John Cena truly and deeply loved his newfound little sister.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

As Callie roamed the back halls of the arena, she only had one thing on her mind. To overcome this maze of corridors, get back to the little office that was set up for her and retrieve her cell phone. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten it. Really she should have cut herself some slack, though. With all of the stage diagrams, schedules and scripts she was juggling already it wasn't a surprise that she hadn't thought of something else to carry around. She was truly grateful for being offered the job of designing the stage and prop setups by Mrs. Linda McMahon herself, but she hadn't been prepared for all of the extra responsibilities she'd end up taking on. Oh, she loved every minute of it but sometimes she really missed not having to think about a million things at once.

Callie had gone from struggling in a rundown apartment, designing furniture and stage sets on scraps of paper to working for the WWE, seemingly all at once. After three weeks of designing stage sets, hunting down props and dealing with builders at World Wrestling Entertainment, Callie showed she was worth the McMahons' time. Linda had gotten into a bit of a bind with some of the contractors the company had hired. They were trying to back out of building jobs for more money and Linda had become exasperated with them. Callie, having been studying textiles and the like on her own for years, knew enough to know that the contractors were trying to get more money for an already shoddy job. She immediately put them in their place and Linda, being impressed with her ability to get things done, had asked if she would like to handle some of the companies paperwork while they were on the road. Soon, paperwork turned into conference calls, meetings and building contracts and repairs.

Winding her way down yet another brightly lit hallway she immediately recognized the black door with her name on it. It was nothing special. Just a small, out of the way room where she could do paperwork, set up her laptop and make calls. She smiled as she came up to it, seeing the paper sign on the door. Phil, or rather Punk, always wrote them out for her. Even when he wasn't in character for the show, Callie still preferred to call him Punk. It suited him. The typing paper had her name in a flowy style surrounded by nautical star patterns up and down the sides; the very same stars she had tattooed on her inner wrists. He always made her one when they came to a new arena. She thought it was sweet in a brotherly sort of way. In fact, all of the wrestlers treated her like that. Well, maybe not all. Some of the older guys like Glenn and Mark and even Teddy himself seemed more like psuedo father figures. Probably since they were more seasoned than some of the younger guys. In life as well as wrestling.

Digging her phone out her purse she turned on the backlight to see seven new messages, both text and voicemail. 'Great. I'm gonna have to play catch-up now.' Just as well. After the show tonight she would have some time on her hands to finish up some prjects anyway. Turning around she nearly screamed as she collided with a solid body.

"Oh my god, Jeff!" She breathed. "You scared the hell out of me! I didn't hear you sneak in."

"Well, that was kinda the point," he chuckled. "You can't sneak up on someone if they hear you coming."

Callie tried to put a stern, pissed-off look on her face but her eyes lied the whole time. After her initial shock, she was just as amused by it as he was. And besides, now she had a reason to get him back for it. She loved to play their little prank game just as much as he did.

"So that's how many for me now? Twenty-two? Twenty-three?" Jeff was laughing the entire time.

"Oh I don't think so mister," she mocked anger again. "That's nineteen! I've got it written down so you can't cheat."

"Cheat? Who me? Never!"

Callie brought up the file folder she had been holding in her other hand and playfully smacked him over the head with. She'd started keeping track of how many times they pranked each other when they had made a dare to each other one night. They'd gotten so into messing with each other that they had turned it into a monthly game. If Callie had more pranks at the end of the month, Jeff had to cook her the dinner of her choice, but if Jeff had more, Cal had to accompany him to the ring to cheer him on for his next match. And Jeff was definitely winning. "Hey have you seen my brother?" She suddenly changed the subject, looking down at her phone. "I have four messages from him on here. Is everything okay? Is he okay?"

"Calm down sweet thang. Saw him warming up earlier. Probably just checkin up on ya." His southern twang shone throguh once again. Sometimes, especially when he'd been drinking, he'd use his accent to melt women's hearts. Callie just thought it was funny. "You know how overprotective he can be."

"Yeah well, I'd better go find him. Love ya, weirdo. Have a good match." She waved goodbye to Jeff and sauntered off down the hall to find her brother. Jeff was right. John was pretty protective of Callie at times but she chalked that up to him still being relatively new at having a sister. He still wasn't quite sure exactly how much was too much.

Callie didn't see the figure come out of the locker room a few doors behind her. She didn't feel his gaze up and down her small frame as she moved farther away from him. And she had no idea that he, eventually, would be the downfall of both her and her brother. His dark eyes glimmered as they ran over her body. He was used to getting what he wanted. Tonight, he was going to beat John Cena in a match and retain his championship belt. And later, he would woo Cena's little sister into becoming his. It never even occurred to him that he might not get what he wanted.

_**I know it's a little slow right now but I'm planning on things picking up in a while. Chapter 2 and 3 will probably run along the same speed (slightly slow) but you will get more information about the relationship of John and Callie and how they came to be brother and sister. I think I'm going to be doing some of it in flashbacks.**_

_**And a side note, I actually planned on writing a prequel to this story before I ever even started writing this one. The prequel will be John finding Callie and how she came to be where she is now. I thought it might be a challenge to start with this one and then go back, making sure all of the pieces fit along the way. New chapter will be up tomorrow night (probably not until late) and possibly chapter three as well. And the next few chapters will be much longer as well. I'm going for 3-4 times longer than this initial one. If that seems too long then please let me know and I will separate them out some.**_

_**Thanks for reading guys!**_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The moment had come. Everyone in the arena could feel the electricity in the air. Every seat in the arena was filled and backstage the energy was flowing through every soul, wrestler or not. Even Callie, who was usually busy during show times, always took a few moments to enjoy the opening of the show. Once she had learned all about wrestling and the industry, she easily saw how many people found it addictive. She wasn't even an on-air personality and she was hooked on the excitement of it all.

"Hey CC!" John came up beside her, using the nickname he'd given her on the day she had officially become a Cena. Callie's original last name, Sutton, was been her biological mother's. Callie didn't mind losing it, as she had never even met the woman anyway. And she'd been overjoyed at officially being a part of the Cena family. "I've been looking for you."

"Yeah, sorry. I was carrying so much earlier that I forgot my phone." She apologized. "Something wrong?"

"Not at all," John flashed a smile. "Just thought after the show tonight we'd get together and hang out. Ya know, some quality brother/sister time?"

"You DO know we share a hotel room right?"

"I said quality, not quantity. Besides, I gotta get some time in before Dave gets into town." Callie's relationship with Dave Bautista always amazed John, as well as some of the others on the roster. They were always together whenever they happened to be in the same city. In fact, it was usually the only time when she didn't share a hotel room with John. But it was the dynamics of their relationship that confused everyone. They hung out, went on "dates" and slept together. They had become the perfect example of close "friends with benefits". What no one could understand was why they didn't just make it official already. He knew they each had their reasons but, come on, what was the hold up?

"I'm all yours for tonight. So, junk food, a movie and a bottle of Jack?"

"Aw hell no." John actually looked sick for a minute. "After the last time, there's no way in hell I'm touching that stuff for a while. Let's stick to some beers. You pick the movie. Gonna need a ride back to the hotel?"

"Ummm…..yeah I should be done with all of my stuff in time. And I really don't want to have to deal with another sleazy cab driver anyway."

"I still say you should call me when you need a ride. I'll always come pick you up."

"I survived. And speaking of that, you should go finish getting ready so you can survive this match with the title in hand." She offered him a quick peck on the cheek and walked off, already answering messages on from her inbox on her phone, just as the show's opening music faded and Cody Rhodes began his 10 minute rant in the ring about how fabulous he was.

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Cal settled herself in her little office and switched on television set. Usually, all of the wrestlers backstage would watch the entire show, when they weren't in the ring or filming promo spots, that is. Even if they were warming up they had a tv on somewhere around them and were always paying it some kind of attention. It was what Vince had dubbed 'backstage etiquette'. The WWE was one big family and they all paid each other the respect of enjoying the show, whether they were in it at that moment or not. Usually, Callie was too busy to watch it all, running back and forth from room to room, on the phone or emailing someone. But she always took the time out to watch John's matches and, when she could, the others as well.

Sadly, John's match was almost over anyway. She'd gotten caught up on the phone with a prop dealer who had been getting frustrated at the fact that he couldn't find what she was looking for. But Callie didn't have the time to let him go and deal with it later. They were leaving for Europe in a few weeks and she needed everything set up for delivery well ahead of time. They always had props set up in the ring and backstage in promo shots that had something to do with where they were or what was going on with the holidays. Oddly enough, the british phone booth that they had always had set up at the top of the ring had gone missing from the prop department. The paperwork said it had been signed out for something else and it was up to Callie to find another one.

John was in the ring with his opponent sprawled out on the mat before him. He looked up into the stands and raised his right hand, ready for his patented 'you can't see me' before delivering a five knuckle shuffle. The whole crowd was on their feet, stunned when his opponent kicked out of the pin, swaying on his feet from one too many blows to the head. Cena seemed just as awed but immediately flew right back into action, taking advantage of his adversary being more than a little dazed and swooped him up onto his shoulders. While the crowd roared it's approval, the dark haired, dark eyed man was woefully subjected to the F U and had finally had enough.

"ONE…TWO….THREE!" The audience counted so loud that the ref's slaps to the mat couldn't even be heard. The entire arena rumbled with the cheers and shouts of excited fans. John finally had his WWE title back and the WWE Universe had regained their rightful champion. No one was going home disappointed. Well, except maybe for the man who had just lost it.

Callie was on her feet and clapping in the office, the sound echoing loudly in the sparsely furnished room. She hadn't known what the outcome of this match would be and, with it being one of the main matches leading up to Wrestlemania, it had been kept a secret from everyone but the persons involved. There had been a lot of talk among backstagers and fans alike that the board of directors wouldn't give the title back to Cena before Wrestlemania and this win was going to be a huge upset to more than a couple of the other matches involved in the event. Had she known or not, Callie would have been just as excited when the moment came and she couldn't be happier to be here to share it with him.

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The hotel was as nice as could be. Working for the WWE wasn't all glitz and glamour like some fans thought it was. And, contrary to popular belief, the superstars didn't always stay in nice hotel suites and have the best of everything. It was many weeks of a long, hard schedule, very little sleep and sometimes, when cities were overloaded with other events, nicer hotels couldn't be found vacant. Sometimes, when arriving late or being just too tired to care, they had stayed in some very seedy looking places. But this wasn't one of those times. There were plush red carpets on the hallway floors, the elevators were polished to a bright sheen and soft ambient lighting glowed overhead. But he didn't notice any of it.

After his loss tonight, he was angry. After he'd found Callie backstage and had very nearly promised her the moon to get her to just go out on one date with him (he figured one date was all it took anyway, for the ladies to get hooked) and she had rejected him, he was seething. Oh she was nice as hell about it. Quoting her pseudo-relationship with Mr. Bautista himself as one excuse, being too busy for another. But he knew in the way she always made sure to keep a certain number of steps between them. The way she moved back slightly, almost imperceptibly, when he tried to put his hand on her arm, he knew she was disgusted with him. She had to be. She almost cringed with hate at him. Little bitch thought she was too good for him, did she? Well, now he knew.

He knew how to pay John Cena back for taking his title. And the fact that the little stuck up bitch would learn her lesson in the process? Well, that was just icing on the cake.

He opened his door with the room key and immediately went to his luggage to pull out his little book. Not a diary exactly. More of a record of his plans and now he had a perfect next chapter. He wrote late into the night, not stopping to order dinner or even turn on the television. When he finally finished, he dropped the book back into his bag and started the shower in the bathroom, turning the water as hot as it would go. He had to wash the feel of Cena off of him. Wash off the other man's sweat. It was burning into him and making him even more insane; almost as if it were a poison making it's way into his brain.

As he waited for the water to warm up he stripped his clothing off and stood in front of the mirror. He stared into it, never once blinking or turning away. He looked at himself, his muscles, his face and most of all his eyes. He stood like that until the water in the shower had gotten so hot and for so long that the mirror fogged completely over and he could no longer see anything but a dim outline of the person standing there. It was just as well. It wasn't himself he had been seeing in the mirror anyway. It had been Cena. And tears had been streaming down his face. He knew it could only be a glimpse into the future.

_**Oooooo. Who could it be? Well I know, and I'm planning on all of you guys knowing by chapter 5 or 6. I really want to spend the next couple of chapter getting more into the mind of this madman and exploring more of the details on John and Callie's relationship. I kind of pounded out this chapter pretty quickly just a few minutes ago since I had been pretty busy all day but I've got all day tomorrow free and am really looking forward to getting more into the brother/sister details. You won't find out everything about how they find each other but I am planning on answering a few key questions. And it will be slightly longer.**_

_**Thanks for reading guys!**_


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Oh my gawd! I can't believe you just made me watch that! I'm NEVER getting to sleep tonight and it's all your fault!" Callie threw the pillow she had been using to lay on straight at John's face. Even from underneath it all she could hear was his laughing.

"What? You said you were having trouble picking a movie so I chose for us. I thought it was awesome. And damn that Katie Holmes is hot." John barely got all the words out between breaths.

"Ew, okay, the last thing I need is to hear my brother talking about a hot girl," Callie playfully cringed. "What was up with those little evil monster things? Geez, it's like the evil version of the tooth fairy…..ugh! And when her leg snapped backwards." Cal looked back at John again. "You do realize now that if I can't sleep I'm going to keep you awake all night too right?"

"Oh no. I have to drive us to Texas tomorrow for some promos and the next house show. I need my sleep!"

"Should have thought about that before making me watch that awful movie." Callie said matter-of-factly. Really she thought the plot line had been interesting but it scared the crap out of her. She was going to be hearing those little monsters whispering in the dark every time she closed her eyes.

John just laughed harder, knowing that eventually she'd get to sleep anyway. If there was one thing about Cal that everyone knew, it was that she really loved her sleep. It really didn't surprise him considering how much she worked. Usually she could be seen running around backstage like a chicken with it's head cut off. If she weren't dealing with set issues then she was running errands for other wrestlers or higher-ups. Her dedication to everything that she did was seriously impressive. Once again, though, John knew that had come from her upbringing. She'd been forced to excel at everything that she did because she hadn't had the advantages that others her same age had. That was another of those things that had strained his relationship with his father.

As long as John had known his father, they had always been close. Oh, they had their spats just like any other father and son while the younger Cena had been growing up, but they had never really let it get between them. Then, 3 years ago, after his mother's death, John had inadvertently stumbled across the truth about his father's infidelity. It had been the first real test of his love for his father. John never understood how a man could claim to love his wife still, and yet cheat on her when she wasn't looking. John himself had already been born and that made it hurt even more. Had his father not thought about the family that he had left at home while he was out doing who-knows-what with whoever he pleased? That had strained the two Cena men enough. But when John had finally confronted his father about the situation he got what was perhaps the biggest shock of his life. The older Cena had had a daughter with his mistress although he claimed to not have known about her until just 2 years before his mother's death; 5 short years ago. John's first question had been why? Why had he not been told anything about this sibling of his? Why had he been denied a relationship with his own flesh and blood?

The senior John had explained how it would have hurt his spouse even more to have an illegitimate child running around. Carol had already known about his wandering eye and the resulting affair. Telling her that a child had sprouted from it would have driven her from him completely. Especially since she had always mourned the fact that she had never had a daughter herself; something she had always longed for.

John had nearly lost it then, screaming and yelling at his father. Yes, he understood how his mother would have felt and it would have ruined her. But, the way he saw it, his father was only trying to save himself. He was more worried about Carol packing her things, taking John as well, and leaving him alone than he cared about her feelings. And even after she had died, why was he never told? Why didn't he just come out with it and let John know he had a sister? The elder Cena never had an explanation for that one. He only hung his head in shame and attempted to apologize on more than one occasion. Finally John had had enough of it and the two hadn't spoken for months.

But the thought never left him. Even while he was out on the road, wrestling in a new town every week, posing for photo shoots and signing autographs, he always thought about the sister he never knew. Was she okay? Did she know about him? Did she even want to meet him? Finally, one lonely night in Atlanta, Cena finally picked up the phone and called his father, demanding all the information the old man had about his sister. It turned out to not be much. Her mother, Violet, had died just 6 months after the baby had been born and Callie was placed into foster care. Because she was a ward of the state, she bounced around a lot and John Sr. had never really paid enough attention to keep tabs on her. All he knew was that she would be 21 years old and somewhere in the state of Texas, where Violet had moved to for work shortly after becoming pregnant. Violet had had a number of problems, not the least of which had been a very demanding drug addiction, which meant that she had already filtered through all of the friends and family that had been willing to put up with her. By the time she overdosed, there had been no one left to notify as next of kin or to care for Callie.

So began the long string of foster homes and government facilities. John quickly learned in his search that even though people had been taught that social services was there to help kids out and find them home, it was so far from the truth. Many of these children had been in the system for long they didn't even know what a family was. To them it was something that only existed in fairy tales and on tv. Many of the foster families were great when the social workers came for their home visits. After they left though, it was obvious many of these families only took the children in because they came with a government paycheck. Callie had been one of the unlucky ones who had never been adopted into a family. On her 18th birthday she had received no party, no presents. After packing up the few things she owned into a backpack she had been handed 50 dollars and sent on her way. Out into the Big D with nowhere to go and no friends to fall back on. To this day John still can't believe she had made it as far as she had.

When John knocked on her door on one dreary November afternoon they had both been dumbfounded. As he had looked down at the tiny person in front of him he found it hard to believe that they shared even a few of the same genes. She was roughly just five feet tall and couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds, if that. Her tanned skin seemed to half come from the sun and half from pure genetics. The only thing that assured him that he had finally found the right person had been her eyes. They were a deep and bright blue; mirrors of his own. Maybe he would have been able to see more of a similarity had she not altered herself; her brightly dyed red hair and tattoos covering her arms. Somehow though, it had worked for her. He remembered looking down at the girl who had opened the door. "Ummm, hi. My name is John and I think you might be my sister….."

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"Helloooooooo. Earth to Johnathan!" John snapped back to reality to realize that Callie was waving her hand in front of his face. "Where the hell were you?"

"Katie Holmes' bedroom…" he trailed off with a goofy grin on his face knowing the reaction he would get.

"Oh come on dude! Think with the head on your shoulders just this once!" Callie flew into a fit of giggles as John lunged for her across the bed and proceeded to tickle her in her ribs, deftly avoiding her kicking feet. Once he stopped and both had regained their breath, John turned to Callie.

"So, CC how goes the set up for England? Still fighting with those contractors?"

"Aw, John why'd you have to ruin the night by talking about work? I was hoping to forget about that retard." She laughed at the sentiment. "If you insist on bringing it up, why don't you tell what you guys have in store for Wrestlemania this year? I've been too busy to pay too much attention to those meetings other than my part in the design. Which is almost done, by the way."

"Not too much. The usual, you know?" John's bravado swelled to fill the room. "I make my usual awesome entrance, the fan are enthralled and I leave the winner!"

Callie chunked the pillow in his direction again. "Oh please Mr. Full-of-Yourself! I'd be careful if I were you. Orton may be your best friend in real life but he has no problem beating your fat ass in the ring!"

"Fat ass? Where did that come from?" John seemed genuinely shocked.

"Oh please, everyone knows it. When I first met you I checked out some of your fan pages. All the girls kept talking about how your ass sticks out and it's supposed to be so cute and sexy." She mockingly stuck her finger down her throat. "Ugh! Make me gag!"

John laughed at the face she was making and stood up to pop the disc out of the dvd player. Placing it back into it's case she shuffled through some of the other movies in the pile. They'd borrowed them from Paul, known in the ring as Big Show, rather than go out and rent some. He'd already left for Dallas but they'd see him there in a couple of days to give them back. John chose a comedy this time, figuring they should watch something that wouldn't scare the shit out of them before heading off to sleep. Instead of heading to his bed, John grabbed the pillows from it and headed over to Callie's. Some brothers and sisters might have thought it creepy to sleep in bed together but they weren't like that. They each kept their own blankets anyway and John knew from experience that after watching that movie she'd never get to sleep on her own. They each settled in, John resting his hands behind his head to better see the screen and Callie curled up on her side, practically strangling her body pillow. The movie had barely started before they'd both dozed off surrounded by junk food and a few empty beer bottles.

The plan was finally starting to come together. He had been writing in his notebook for the better part of an hour before the idea hit him. He wouldn't just make John pay for taking his championship belt away from him. He wouldn't just make Callie wish she had never snubbed him. What good would that do if no one knew about it? If no one was able to appreciate his handiwork? Well, he knew exactly what had to be done for that to happen. He would make sure that he had the largest audience of them all….on the grandest stage of them all….

For some reason the pounding would not stop. At first John tried pulling both the pillow and the sheet over his head but still it persisted. _Oh my God, I'm going to choke slam whoever is making that sound. _He slung the blankets off of him, kicking the remnants down towards the foot of the bed and glanced at the clock. 8 am? Ugh. He rubbed his eyes as he headed for the hotel room door, cursing and jumping up and down on one foot after he stubbed his little toe on the dresser.

"Ugh, dammit! This had better be good…" he trailed off as he opened the door.

"Well, hello to you too Sunshine!"

"Dammit Orton, what the hell? I don't have to be up for another two hours. I'm sure Cal's gonna kill you if you wake her up." John yawned and rubbed his eyes again.

"Well that just goes to show how much you pay attention Asshole," Randy laughed. "Callie's downstairs having breakfast with Jeff. Been there for half an hour now. Damn, how much did you drink last night?" He joked as he pushed past John into the room and opened the curtains, letting the light blind them both.

"Funny. I had three. Hardly enough for a hangover. Now get the hell out."

"Haha. No can do Monkey-butt. You gotta get up. I got something I think you should see."

"Ewwww! Randy, keep your pants on! I accidentally walked in on you that time. I don't need to see it again!"

Randy chuckled. "Well, good to know you're awake enough to still make jokes. But you really should see this." Orton held out an envelope to John. It had Callie's name on it.

"What, you stealing people's mail now or something you klepto?" John joked again as he took the envelope from Randy and opened it. After scanning the page inside his smile began to fade. "What is this some secret admirer shit?"

"Seems more like a stalker to me. Dude keeps talking about looking at her and seeing her from afar and shit. Pretty creepy if you ask me. It was taped to my hotel door this morning when I got up. Apparently her suitor didn't know well enough to know we'd switched rooms for the night." And they had. After John had found out that Callie wasn't going to be spending the night with Dave, he'd switch hotel room s with Randy since Randy had been given one with a double bed. Turned out they hadn't needed the second bed anyway.

"So if you saw Cal downstairs why didn't you just give it to her? Not too sure she's gonna want me in her business."

"Well, therein lies the problem. I know a love letter when I see one, hell I've even written a few myself," he shook his finger at Cena. "And if you ever tell anyone that I'll kill you myself. And honestly, this seems a little weird to me. Kinda dark really. And I know how skittish Callie can be when it comes to people like that. Especially because of her past. Thought you might know a better way to give it to her without her going all paranoid and postal on me."

John looked back down at the paper and, now that he really took the time to pay attention to it, it did seem a little creepy. This wasn't one of those "I like you, do you like me back" letters. _As I watch you from afar the memory of your perfume fills my lungs with longing. _Okay so maybe a little more poetic than most men would have gone. It was the bottom few lines that screamed for attention. _The purple bra is my favorite. The one you only wear when you are really trying to draw attention. Wear that one for me soon…. _

John looked up at Randy and knew he was right. This was kind of creepy. But should he tell Callie or not? Randy was right. Callie was extremely jumpy when it came to things like this. Hell, the first time she'd ever been backstage with John she had nearly panicked and run screaming from the arena. It had taken so long for her to feel comfortable around the wrestlers and other personnel even though they all already considered her family and would have never harmed her. Cena breathed out a sigh and wondered what to do.

**Okay so it's not quite where I thought this chapter was going but I figured I could use the situation to add a little misdirection. I'm hoping it turns out to have the effect I'm imagining. We'll see! Well, as soon as I post this one I'm going to start working on the next chapter and it should be up in the next couple of days. You'll learn more about Callie's foster homes and her friendship with Jeff. Hope you all enjoyed! And, as always, guesses for as to who the madman could be are always welcome. So far only 1 person has gotten it right but when they guessed they wrote like 5 different wrestlers at a time. All I say is that it was one of those wrestlers. But hmmm…which one? (I'm having way too much fun with this!)**


	5. Chapter 4

**Alright, sorry guys. Both for the lateness of this post and the typos that I'm sure I'm not going to catch. Summer has come early to Texas (we've managed to skip spring altogether) which means that, with my sinuses, I'm living in hell. Between the sore throat, double ear infection and sinus infection I'm living off of soup and cough meds with codeine in it so please bear with me. Thankfully I wrote this chapter before it all settled in but now I'm typing it out so….yeah. Sorry if there are typos and stuff in it. Also, I'm really having fun with people guessing who the madman is. Although, even if you get it right, wouldn't it ruin the story if I told you? LOL. And who could be Callie's creepy secret admirer? Is it the same person as the madman? Hmmmm. Oh, and I really do live in Texas and have actually spent a few years living around the arena in Dallas and all. I did change a few of the details about it to better suit my story but, for the record, all the street names and places I put in here from Dallas are real.**

Chapter 4

Callie laughed as Jeff pulled the straws from his mouth. He had actually done the whole "I'm a walrus" but with the straws many times before but it never failed to amuse her. And since it didn't count in their whole "prank" game she could laugh at it without having to feel the need to get him back for it. Those were the best times. Cal had spent time with both Matt and Jeff in North Carolina. Hell, she'd spent pretty much her entire high school career there. Afterwards she'd made her way back to Texas. Mostly because it was the only place that had ever really felt like home. Even with John's house in Land O' Lakes, Florida and his family home in West Newbury, which she didn't even know about until a little while ago, she made moved all over the United States, mostly in the south. Her foster homes had sent her pretty much everywhere and anywhere that someone was willing to take her. The three years she had spent in Dallas, Texas had been her favorite. It had been a mix between the music, art and social life that she had found there that had made it feel more like home than anywhere else. That's why she had moved back after her high school graduation (and after she had been sent out of her foster home for turning of age).

"Well, hey, I'm sure John's awake by now, probably hogging the bathroom again," Callie stood up and took one last swig of her drink before ruffling Jeff's hair because she knew she was one of the few people that could get away with it. "We've got to start packing for the drive to Dallas."

"Speaking of the Big D," Jeff looked at her with a hint of concern in his eyes. "You okay with going back there? I mean," he looked down at his empty plate. "I know even though you loved living there you had some rough times when you went back. I know the arena we're going to be working in was right around your street territory."

"I think I'll be okay. I mean, I know I've pretty much avoided that part of downtown since I finally got back on my feet but I think I'll make it." She gave Jeff one of her thousand-watt grins. "Besides, I'll have all of you guys there with me."

Jeff smiled back and hugged her bye before watching her leave the hotel restaurant. Even though she had tried to be light-hearted about it and reassure her, he still had his doubts.

Across the hotel, Mike was pacing nervously around his hotel room. Why had he put that note on her door? _Stupid, stupid. _He mentally chastised himself. He had gone back to try and remove it before she had woken up and found it but it was already gone. Well, maybe she wouldn't know it was him. Maybe she wouldn't think about it at all and just throw it away. Damn, one night of having a few too many beers and he had lost all common sense by letting a little crush get the best of him. But once the alcohol had hit his system he just _had_ to let her know how he felt. The problem was that he had gotten so drunk that he couldn't even remember what he'd written in it! Figuring that he'd better do something with his nervous energy other than wear a groove into the plush carpeting of his room, he decided to head down to the hotel gym and work off some steam. Thankfully he was headed home later tonight anyway since he wasn't scheduled for the Dallas show so he wouldn't have to be around if someone brought it up. But damn, he couldn't get it out of his mind. Hell, what would Dave do if she told him? Even though they weren't likely to be getting married anytime soon, Dave would not take it too lightly if he thought someone was trying to move in on Callie. If he couldn't only remember what he had written in that damned note!

He'd been concentrating so hard on trying to jog his memory he didn't see her coming from the other end of the hallway, headed back to her room. Mike nearly ran right into her. "Hey Miz!" He was startled out of his thoughts by her surprised voice. "Trying to run me down today?"

"Oh hell, Cal, so sorry. Didn't see you there," he was stammering.

"Ha, well being backstage with all of you giants had taught me a thing or two about not getting squished!" She was joking with him. Although all of the wrestlers backstage had almost run her down on more than one occasion. She was always speeding around so fast backstage that she was usually just a blur of dyed red hair and paperwork and being barely 5 feet tall, they were all a little wary of stepping on her anyway. "You alright? You seemed like you were off in la la land."

"Oh, uh, naw, I'm okay. Just tired. Lookin forward to getting home and getting some relaxation."

Callie looked skeptical but decided to let it go. If he'd really wanted to talk about it he would have and she was on a time limit if they wanted to get to Dallas before it got dark tonight. Thankfully it was only a 4 or 5 hour drive but she was supposed to meet with some prop dealers once they got there and Dave had had to change their plans once again and meet up with her and John in Dallas instead of seeing her this morning and driving with them there. "Alright, well, have a good time at home. We'll see you when you get back next week." She offered him a smile and gave a small wave as she continued on her way.

Mike watched her go and nearly fell over when he saw her use a key and head into a room just a few doors down from where he stood. The realization stunned him. That was NOT the door he had put the note on, and if she hadn't gotten it….well….who had?

**Later that night….**

_Damn, she covered her tracks well,_ he thought to himself while typing in the address for a different search engine online. He had been searching online for what seemed like all night and was still coming up empty handed. Dallas was Callie's hometown, so to speak, the place where her house was. Why could he not find the address? Not even a hint at a cell phone number or magazine subscription in her name could be found. The easy way would be to hire a private eye and have her followed but then there would be a paper trail. Well, not that it would matter later anyway. What he had planned was going to be very public and very obvious that he had conspired it all beforehand. There would be no smooth-talking his way out of this one, once he had pulled it off. He was well aware that he would lose his job, never get his title back and most likely end up in jail. Well, he was aware of it in the back of his mind at least. The notion barely registered with him while he was deep into his scheming. All he cared about was getting his revenge. Cena was going to pay and Callie was going to learn that no one refused him. He couldn't follow her himself. Too many people knew his face and his name; he would be spotted anywhere they went. Well, it just looked like he was going to have to change up his plans. He grinned to himself at his flexibility. Good soldiers had to think on their feet and improvise when they had to. He could do it.

Finally deciding he needed a new game plan, he closed the lid on his laptop and pulled out his trusty notebook. Taking a black marker he scratched out a couple of pages and deftly turned to an empty page. It was time to put the finishing touches on his new strategy.

"Hey, man," John came up behind Ron Killings, better known as R-Truth, backstage at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The arena was huge and whenever they had shows here, even some of the superstars, who had learned most of the arena's layouts from being there so many times, could sometimes get lost. "You seen Callie? She disappeared when we got here."

"Naw, but I heard some of the prop guys were dropping off some boxes earlier in the parking garage."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Ron continued while pulling a bottled water out of his bag. "Some of the ring guys were bringing the boxes in earlier and were talking bout she was out there dealin with em. You might wanna check."

"Alright, thanks man. See you out in the ring later."

"Yeah, cool. And hey," Ron turned back around as John was about to head off towards the exit. "You lay a hurtin on Bennet tonight. He been runnin his mouth around here about how he's gonna be top dog here soon. Put that noob in his place." Killings was laughing as he said it.

"You know it man! Catch ya later." John laughed with him, although not quite as creepily as Ron had. Sometimes, John couldn't figure out if Ron's "Lil Jimmy" act was really an act or if the guy was losing it from one too many hits to the head. But he was right about Stu Bennet, known to his fans as Wade Barrett. That guy had thought he was God's gift to wrestling from the moment he walked into his first match in the WWE.

Coming through the exit doors to the parking garage John didn't see any trucks there that would have been dropping off boxes. He could always check the loading dock but Callie usually never had stuff delivered there. None of her boxes were ever really that large and it would be more hassle than it was worth to have to carry them all through the backstage corridors from the dock than from the garage. Just as he was about to turn and head back into the building a shadow caught his eye. All the way across the garage, he saw a silhouette sitting on the small stone wall that separated the parking area from the street. They were small and hunched over a little, with their back leaning up against one of the posts that ran along the wall. John was betting that it was her.

He cautiously made his way over, not wanting to startle her by coming up behind her. Once he had gotten close enough he cleared his throat. Callie turned her head towards him and, without saying a word, turned to look back out at the street like she had been doing before he showed up.

"Hey CC, you okay?" John asked her, concerned. She rarely didn't verbally acknowledge him and there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. It didn't look like she had been crying but there was something despondent about her. John closed the small distance that was left between them and put his hand on her arm. "Did someone say something to you?"

"No. Just in a mood I guess." She never looked away from the street. John followed her gaze out across Houston Street and really didn't see much of anything that would be interesting enough to hold her concentration like that.

"Hey, Cal, you know you can talk to me right? About anything."

"I know, John. It's just weird talking about it to anyone, not just you. I just…..I haven't been back in this part of town in quite a while. It's not like I can't handle it or anything it's just….well…..weird."

"You never really talked about all the time you spent living on the street here before. I'm sure there would have been a lot of stuff that I wouldn't want to know anyway." John's jaw clenched just thinking about it. It would be nice to think that there was a decent place to go for a girl who needed help and safe place to sleep but truth of the matter was, Dallas' homeless problem was just as bad as every other large city and it's crime rate could rival some cities even larger than it was. John had never wanted to think about what an 18 year old girl would have had to do to survive.

"Usually just things I would rather be able to forget. Spent a lot of time around this arena though. Some very interesting times." She almost seemed to smile a little at that. Although Callie would probably never divulge everything that had happened to her while living on the streets, both good and bad, she had come to terms with the fact that he would probably ask one day. So far, today wasn't turning out to be that day and she was grateful for it. "You see that spot over there?" Cal pointed across the street to a small patch of grass that was mostly hidden behind some bushes.

John's eyes followed her cue and he nodded.

"I used to sleep there some nights. Not on the weekends of course," she stole a small glance at him, still a little too ashamed of her past to make eye contact. "When the arena was having an event there was too much security around. But on other days, cops pretty much stayed away from over here. Get behind those bushes, no one could see you. No one would mess with you."

"Callie, you never said any of this before. I mean, I knew it had all happened but," John trailed off. He really wasn't too sure what to say. He hadn't been prepared for this when he came out here but, then again, Cal's moods could change at the drop of a hat. It didn't happen to often but when it did, it was a complete 180 and you never even saw it coming.

Callie shrugged slightly. "Never thought it would help anything." She turned her back to the street, dangling her legs over the side of the wall she was perched on. She made a large effort to study her pedicure in the peep-toe heels she was wearing that night. "Came out here to take an order for some of the Wrestlemania plans and just saw it out there. Well, not like it would have gone anywhere."

John snickered slightly at her lame attempt at a joke, knowing that if she was at least trying then she wasn't as depressed about it as he thought. He stood directly in front of her and brought her into his arms in a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. "Well, if you want to talk about it, we can head back to my dressing room. I'm all ears if you need to."

"Naw, I'm okay. Just came over and ended up staring at it longer than I realized. Yeah, it is a little depressing but, as amazing as it may seem, I had some pretty good times living out there too. I made some friends and had some adventure." Cal smiled into his chest, remembering Weasel and Lo, her partners in crime. Not that they had ever committed any real crimes other than stealing the odd can of food from a grocery store whenever they needed to eat but they definitely had some adventures.

John pulled away and looked into her eyes. "You sure you're okay?"

"Absolutely. Just took a small side trip down memory lane." She grinned up at him and made sure it reached her eyes, telling him she really was okay.

"Even so…..let's head to catering and see if Tony will make us a huge sundae, extra bananas, just the way you like it. Ice cream makes the world go round!"

"Yeah right," the playfully punched him in the chest. "Like you need to be eating that before a match. You'll puke all over the mat!" In response, Cena began playfully making retching sounds at her. "You dorkus!" She dumped down from the wall and let him take her hand to lead her back into the building.

"Yeah well, I'm not gonna get to torture you in the hotel tonight since you'll be with Dave so I figure if I stuff you with enough ice cream to make you sick, I can ruin his night too!" John grinned.

Cal laughed and followed him across the parking area. She stole one last look over her shoulder back at the spot across the street, silently thanking whatever god was out there that she no longer had to sleep there at night. It was only coincidence that if she had looked over her other shoulder, she might had seen the eyes watching her and John head off to stuff themselves, peering out from his car window with hatred radiating from them. But she hadn't. And she didn't.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Dave made his way down the corridors backstage, praying that he didn't run into any freaked out fans as he went. Usually it was pretty calm backstage….well, calm compared to out in the common areas of the arenas they performed at, but every so often there were fans that had managed to scrape up enough money for backstage passes and Dave had had more than his share of screaming teenage girls freaking out at the site of him in his ring gear. But since tonight he wouldn't be leaving the arena alone, it was probably best if he didn't have a gaggle of people and their camera phones following him around. Not that his "nonexistent" relationship with Miss Cena herself was a big secret but he had never really been the type to flaunt his personal life around and jeebus only knew that as soon as those pictures when up on the internet, he'd be getting calls left and right from his family; everyone wanting to know why he hadn't told them about his new lady. And he hadn't. Because they just wouldn't understand the stipulations on their pseudo-dating.

Smiling to himself, he rounded a corner and saw her red hair peeking out from behind some of the other guys on the roster. He always thought it funny how she could be so damn small and still have full command of all of the giants around her. Not that she ever bossed them around or anything, but for some reason all the guys loved to joke around and make her happy. Especially Hardy; but maybe that was more because she was the only one willing to deal with his ever changing antics. Dave had even joked to her once that she needed to check online to see how much some black market adult Ritalin would cost to stick into his Christmas stocking.

Callie turned around after handing out the rest of the scripts she had been given for the guys and saw the hulking figure of David coming down the hallway after his match. She hadn't gotten to see him beforehand because she'd been hanging out in the parking garage with John but her face lit up at the site of him, grinning from ear to ear. She headed over to stand in front of him and he immediately pulled her up into a hug, lifting her completely off of the floor. She pressed her face into his neck and breathed him in. She had always loved the way he smelled and it wasn't his cologne either. It was all him. Even straight out of a match, covered in sweat and not yet showered, she loved the way he smelled. And by now they'd shared the same bed enough times for her to be plenty used to the smell of his sweat.

Once again Dave became very aware of his size. It was obvious just by looking at Cal that she was shorter than most women her age but once you saw her actually in his arms it became quite apparent just how easily he could inadvertently hurt her just by squeezing a little too hard. It was probably one of the reasons he had become just as protective of her as John had. As strong as person as she had become she was so tiny it wouldn't take much to completely break her.

"Hey baby," He crooned into her ear before setting her back on her feet. "I've been missing you."

"Oh really now? So all those floozies at the other hotels just couldn't keep up huh?" She joked with him.

"Couldn't hold a candle to you babe," he laughed a little. They knew that neither one of them were sleeping with anyone else but since they'd opted to not officially get together it had become one of their little jokes. "Imma hit the shower and change."

Callie raised her eyebrow. "I thought you were scheduled to go back out the ring later and interrupt Irvine while he's doing the Peep Show."

"Nah, Stephanie changed it. Decided Orton should do it since they're going head to head an 'Mania. So," he gave her a playful slap on her rear. "I'll catch up with you when I'm done and we'll watch John's match together."

Callie watch him walk down the hall towards the locker room, staring at his ass the entire way. Before Dave, she had never known it could be so much fun to watch a man walk away before. After he'd disappeared behind the door she shook it off and went about her work.

...

He had already changed into his ring gear and warmed up for his match. Now all he had to do was wait. It had been difficult making the rounds in the back corridors of the arena with all of his coworkers. But he knew that if he didn't then they would all start to become suspicious after a while. Even if you weren't exactly a people-person there were rules of etiquette for performances. Vince and Linda had laid them out very specifically for each new wrestler when they joined the roster. Everyone stayed until the show was over (unless they had prior permission from the higher ups or an emergency demanded their attention more), they all dressed business casual and everyone was genial and polite, hanging around each other backstage and making friends. Well, he had made only a few friends in his time on RAW and even then they weren't close like some of the other guys were. He wasn't exactly into exchanging numbers and hanging out with the other guys.

For the past hour he had been going over and over the plans he had made regarding his little revenge scheme. It hadn't been hard to eavesdrop on Cena's conversation with Orton earlier and he had been delightfully surprised and slightly alarmed at the same time. Whoever had pinned that note to Orton's hotel room door, meaning it for Callie, was making his job slightly easier in some ways and slightly harder in others. On the one hand, this would probably put her brother on high alert for someone attempting to get close to his sister. That would make it more difficult to carry out the first phases on his plan. But on the other, that note was in no way connected to him and if more showed up and clues pointed them in the direction of someone else, then no one would ever suspect that a second person had carefully laid plans for her. Whoever it was sounded more like a weird stalker than an admirer which could make it harder to spy on her as well. He would have to take extra precautions to not cross paths with this person while carrying out his scheme. Whoever might be watching her might very well notice someone else spying on her as well. That could prove dangerous to him.

Glancing up at the clock, he raised himself off of the locker room bench and headed out the door for his match, decided then and there that he would have to find out who this person was himself.

...

"Oh my god!" Callie jumped up when John walked into the locker room he and Dave were sharing that night. She had also set up shop for her paperwork in there so she could be close to the guys. Her laptop nearly fell off of the couch when she ran over to her brother, immediately using a towel to dab some of the blood off of his chin.

"Sweetie, it's okay," Cena smiled as he fussed over his busted lip. "Nothing to worry about. I won't even need stitches, honey." He tried to reassure her and, finally, she backed off a little but only after she'd wiped all of the blood away and had seen the damage for herself. John never thought she would fully get used to some of the matches that he went through. She did the same thing fussing over Dave, Jeff and Punk as well whenever they had an exceptionally rough match. She knew they loved their careers and wouldn't trade it for the world but she would never get used to seeing the blood and bruises that could sometimes come with it.

John went over and plopped down on the couch, grabbing her laptop in the process and setting it back away from it's precarious position on the edge of the cushion.

"Well, either way, I'm going to go get you some ice for that swelling." Callie headed out the door and Dave and John laughed a little to each other.

"She's never gonna get used to it, is she?" Dave chuckled a little bit. "Especially with you. She get scared every time you go out there."

"Yeah," John chuckled a little right along with him. "Hell it took Liz years to get over it. Don't think CC's gonna join that way of thinking anytime soon." Even though he was lighthearted about it, it made John think back to some of the things he'd learned about her past before he'd met her and knew her reasoning behind it. She had been in foster homes with abusive parents and even a couple juvenile facilities before. She'd seen children being hit and abused before and sometimes, he thought that she might flash back to that whenever she saw one of her friends get bloodied up in the ring. "And besides," Cena continued. "It's been a while since I've had someone dote on me on the road. It's kinda nice."

"Yeah well, don't expect to nurse that lip all night with her. She's headed back with me. Haven't seen her in a month. We've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Aw man, don't remind me of what you're going to be doing with my sister later. Not cool."

That sent Dave into another fit of laughs as Callie walked back in looking confused when she saw him grinning like a fiend. "I'm not really even sure I want to know." She rolled her eyes and handed the ice to John. "And don't try to tell me that you don't need it cause you're swelling up already. Either use the ice or I go back and get the physician to come look at it."

It was John's turn to roll his eyes this time. "Yes Mom." And this time they were all laughing…..just loud enough for him to hear as he walked by on his way to his own locker room. He hated that sound. In just a couple of weeks, none of them would be laughing.


	7. Chapter 6

**I changed the rating of this story because even though it gets a little racy in this chapter, its not too much, but it's going to get pretty violent in once the proverbial shit hits the fan in the few chapters coming after this so be warned it's going to be a little disturbing later on. Also, there's a jump in here to 4 weeks later. I know it's a big jump but they I had planned it, nothing really happened to them while they were in England anyway and I didn't want to bore anyone with some random stuff. Thinking about putting in more of Jeff and his antics and adding in some of the other wrestlers to the dialogue here soon. And yay, 2 chapters in one night! Trying to make up for not posting for a few days. Hope you guys like it and let me know what you think! **

Chapter 6

Dave immediately dropped his bags by the door and flopped down onto the bed. Callie giggled at him a little when he let out a huge sigh and rolled over onto his stomach, pulling his arms up underneath his head and staring face down into the bedspread. She set her bags on the chair at the table and shut the door behind her. She bent down to slip off her shoes and crawled up onto the bed behind him, kneading her fingers into his shoulders and neck, rubbing out the knots and kinks she felt there. A groan escaped his lips and his eyes closed, just enjoying the feeling of her hands roaming over his back. After a couple of minutes she moved over and straddled his lower back to get better leverage. She grinned to herself as another moan escaped his lips. Still smiling she leaned down, laying her entire body over his back and got close to his ear. "You know, you really can't sleep comfortably on the bed if you're laying on it sideways."

Without warning, Dave's head came up and in one swift movement he flipped over while grabbing her around her waist, keeping her on top of him. He had been kind of droopy and silent on the drive to the hotel and even seemed to be lagging a little while they had gotten their room keys from the front desk and parted ways from John. But now, all of the tiredness had left his eyes. Now, he seemed wide awake and his eyes were filled with wanting and passion. Just looking into them Callie was unable to look away and had it not been for his large hands grasping her around her wait she might have completely fallen off of him. She grinned a little down at him as he ran his hands down to her legs and back up again, this time letting his fingers slip underneath the hem of the black skirt she was wearing.

"I thought you were tired," she said teasingly.

"Hmmm. Never too tired for you babe." He ran his hands even farther up her skirt, gently massaging the tops of her thighs before pushing her skirt up and faintly growling in the back of his throat when he saw her thin pink boy shorts underneath. He didn't know what it was about boy shorts but they drove him wild. She always slept in them when she spent the night with him, if she slept in anything at all.

She grinned at him again before leaning back down and pressing her lips against his, exploring his mouth once again. His hands came up and pulled the clip out of her hair, letting it fall in soft waves around them. When he had been with his ex-wife her short hair had been the first thing to attract her to him. But Callie was different. He loved her long hair, especially when he was sleeping next to him and the waves fell over him. It was like silk. Now he ran his hands through it wishing he wrap his entire body with it. Dave groaned in protest as she pulled her lips from his and sat herself back up but quickly smiled his approval when she pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor behind her and leaned back down to him again. He ran his hands all over her body, up and down her back, her legs, her abs; anywhere he could find skin to touch he did. Whenever he was around her it was hard to control himself.

Quickly he put his arms around her slim frame and sat up, making his way to his feet. Callie laughed at the sudden movement and wrapped her legs around his waist, more out of habit to keep from falling than at the possibility of him actually dropping her. She knew he wouldn't, and it wasn't as if he couldn't handle her weight. He leaned back down and laid on her on the bed before standing back up and removing his shirt and pants, opting to keep his boxer briefs on just because he knew it would drive her insane. Once done he just stood there looking down at her for a long moment. For the second time tonight he became acutely aware of his size. Always when they were in bed together he took extra care to control his movements and his weight. Being as large as he was he did with every woman he was with but with Callie it was different. She was tiny by anyone's standards and sometimes at night, he'd roll over onto a pillow and immediately wake up, thinking he'd rolled onto her too hard and hurt her. She never knew but he would laugh at himself afterwards. He kept starting down at her, just drinking in the sight of her.

In her own right, Callie was staring up at him. She never tired of looking at his muscular form. Every ripple and every point of definition could captivate her attention like no other. This time, though, he didn't give her time to fully take it all in, because before she knew it his hands were pressed down on the bed on either side of her head and his weighed warmth was pressed against her front, lips trailing their way up and down her neck. Callie threw her head back, giving him full access to her throat and inadvertently pressing her breasts against him in the process. Dave took advantage of her arched back and reached around to unclasp her bra, pulling it on one swift motion off of her arms, not caring where it landed. Then his lips trailed lower and lower, lingering on her chest for what seemed like an eternity to Callie before making their way down her body, kissing and licking around her navel and finding their way down to the waist of her boy shorts. She gasped in a breath as he began pulling them gently down her legs and tossing them aside…

...

So there it was. They body underneath the skirt he had been staring at all day. Many times he'd imagined what lay underneath those tight pants and short skirts she'd been wearing for the past few months and finally it was right in front of him but not within his grasp. It pissed him off to no end that it was Mr. Bautista himself that he was watching on top of her. How could she consort with a lowlife like that. Hell, if it hadn't been for McMahon showing favoritism he would have had hit shot at that heavyweight title that Dave carried around.

Her body was exquisite. Even with all her scars and tattoos, she was perfect and waiting for him. Oh she wanted him, whether she knew it or not. Well, she was going to get him whether she liked it or not. He walked from his hotel window over to the desk in his room and made a few notes in the book he'd been keeping all of his plans in and then went back over to his position. They had made the mistake of turning on the lamp in the room and didn't bother to double check the curtains, which were open only an inch but that was quite enough to suit his needs. He sat down in the chair he'd positioned next to the window and leaned back to watch the show, knowing no one could see him because of the darkness both outside and in his room.

And watch he did, all the way up until they had finished and laid there with each other before Dave stood and made his way to the bathroom, leaving the door open a crack. Steam came out of the space a few minutes later and he assumed the man was taking a shower. Much to his dismay, a few moments later Callie herself rose from the bed and crept into the bathroom. His suspicions were confirmed when a full twenty minutes went by before they both came out, still unclothed and fell back to the bed for another round of their little game. Apparently she had joined him in the shower and had started their second tryst in there. That made him angry. It was bad enough she had to give herself to someone like him, she should at least do it where he could see. Even though they were now on the bed finishing what they had started in the shower it wasn't enough. The good parts were while they were in the midst of their foreplay. When he could see her in her entirety. Now, all he could glimpse of her was her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands running up and down his back, nails leaving marks, while he pumped into her. Oh, she was going to pay even more for this once he got his hands on her.

**Four weeks later…**

"Hey, you all ready for Wrestlemania?" Orton came up behind Callie as she was packing her things. She jumped a little, forgetting the door to the hotel room had been propped open so the bellhops could more easily take hers and John's luggage down to the lobby.

"Hey Rands. Yeah, I actually finished up all the work I had to do for it ahead of schedule. Now all I have to do is spend the next few days setting up the stage and backstage sets and I'm home free! Can't wait to actually have a couple of weeks off to work on some of my own designs."

Randy stepped into the room when she answered him and came up beside her, picking up the suitcase she had left sitting on the floor. "I'm going to take my things down with me, you want me to go ahead and take this one too?"

"Umm..yeah, John should still be down in the lobby so if you wouldn't mind giving it to him that would be great." Cal smiled her thanks up and Randy and watched as he took the bag out and set it on the cart with his own. "Hey Rands?" She called to him before he could make his way down the hall. "Does John seem like he's been acting weird to you?"

Randy turned back to Cal and sighed a little. He knew what this was about. Dave had come to John earlier before he had left for home for a while and John and Cal had boarded the plane to London. He had tried explaining to John that he was thinking about leaving the WWE and didn't know how to break it to Callie. He would be training for a career in mixed martial arts and wouldn't have the time to be traveling all of the time. He wasn't breaking off his friendship with Callie at all but he knew that their being apart for even longer periods of time would be hard on her. Once again, Randy, as well as everyone else, didn't understand why those two just didn't officially get together already. They were joined at the hip even while apart. He shook his head a little at Callie. "You know how he gets before a big pay per view. And Wrestlemania is the biggest one of them all. He's just been working himself too hard with the promos and press conferences and all. He'll be okay."

"Yeah," Cal said a little sadly. "He just seemed a little more distant this week than usual. He didn't even want to sit up and watch a movie with me last night. He was so sour I almost went and got my own room until he practically begged me not to."

"A lot of it is this damn weather too," Randy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Once we get back to the states he'll perk up a bit. I'll talk to him if you want."

Callie grinned at the thought. She knew Orton was there for her and for John if need be and if something were actually wrong with him John would probably feel more comfortable talking about it with Randy than with her. She couldn't blame him. He and Randy had been friends for what seems like forever and there were things in her life that she felt more comfortable not talking with him about either. "Thanks Rands. I appreciate it."

Randy made a mental note to himself to John alone on the plane or, hell, at the airport and tell him to snap out of it, at least until Dave brought the subject up with Callie on his own. It just wasn't their information to tell.

Boarding the plane for home, Callie was still in a despondent mood but more because they were leaving England than from John's sour mood. They had stayed a week and had managed to cram so many shows in that she hadn't had time to do any sightseeing or really even get out at all. Every night she'd come back to the hotel and either fallen right to sleep or sprawled out on the bed with a movie until she fell asleep there. She'd put the final touches on her Wrestlemania projects and then had taken on some extra work that Linda had emailed to her the second day they had arrived. So much had to be done with Wrestlemania in only two weeks. Jeff had informed her it was always like this before the Big One but they didn't usually travel overseas so soon beforehand. That had been Vince's decision. Ticket sales and told them that while people from over twenty countries purchased tickets to Wrestlemania every year England was number two on the list, right after the good ole U. A. He had thought it would be a great promotion for it to stay that way if they hit up a few cities in England in the weeks prior. After their flight today they would be back in Oklahoma and then after that week's show there would be a whirlwind of promotions, autograph signings, photo shoots and meet and greets before the three day Axxess event before the big show in Arlington, Texas at none other than the brand new Cowboys Stadium. Callie was excited for that. She could stay in her own house instead of a hotel room with John and some of their friends and Arlington was her territory. Not like when she was out on the streets but after she had met John he knew she wouldn't have wanted to leave Texas completely so he'd moved her into a small house on the north side of Arlington really close to the stadium, Rangers Ballpark, Six Flags and all of it. She had loved it from the start and, after she had been working for the WWE for a few months, had tried to start paying him back for all the help he had given her. Hell, he had bought the house flat out and, while it was by no means brand new, it was still much better than she had been used to. Of course, John had refused her money and she, after a few more failed attempts, had given up.

But she was excited to be back home again and couldn't wait to work her first Wrestlemania. She had no idea, though, what someone else had in store for her before she would ever get there.


	8. Chapter 7

**I just want to take a moment to apologize to everyone and explain myself for not updating sooner. I've been sharing a laptop with my roommates and they're both on it ALL day so the only time I could get on it to type everything out and then post it was late at night. As it turned out one of my roommates who usually went to bed early went through a long bout where he was staying up until 2 am playing online and that didn't give me any time to post. (It's his wifes computer so really I couldn't complain seeing as how it isn't mine.) Well, he has recently moved out so I don't have that problem anymore and my other roomie, my bestie, works overnights so I have plenty of time now to be posting and will definitely be having chapters up more often now. Also here soon the chapter will be much longer and more detailed. Earlier on I had been rushed because I couldn't get on to type til about midnight and couldn't stay up too terribly late doing it. But now I have all the time in the world at night to get this done the right way. (that sounds like i'm happy that he moved out and really it's kinda sad but at least there's a silver lining). I just typed this one out in an hour and as soon as I post this one I will start working on the next chapter...and I do mean as soon as. It should be up later on Tuesday night. I'm not promising a chapter every single day but I will NOT be going 2 weeks without posting again! **

**This is kind of a fluff chapter. Mainly just a little fun between friends but I hope you like it. We're going to be hitting a lot of the drama soon so yay! Thank you guys for putting up with the silence and I do plan to make it up to everyone!**

**And as per usual, all the places and streets I use are real. It's one of the reasons I chose to have Wrestlemania in Arlington, TX in this story. They say to write what you know so I wrote 'where' I know. LOL. Plus, I live here so I'd really love for them to have Wrestlemania here in the brand new stadium soon. I mean, the largest flatscreen tv in any arena anywhere? How could you get any better than that? **

Chapter 7

Jeff was bored out of his mind, and anyone who knew him could tell you that a bored Jeff could be either very dangerous or very hilarious, depending on his mood. Well, not that he was actually physically dangerous but watching him pull his pranks was much more entertaining than being the person he pranked on. He had been walking around downtown Fort Worth for an hour now in an area, according to the small pamphlet he'd picked up earlier, called Sundance Square. For some reason he'd thought to arrive way too early for his lunch date and had been taking in a few of the sights and admiring the interesting architecture of most of the buildings. Jeff was always building new things and structures in his backyard in North Carolina so the architecture always intrigued him. Not that he could have pulled off much of the intricate masonry and sharp angles of some of the buildings Ft. Worth provided but it was always fun to get some new ideas.

Glancing at his watch he saw that he still had a few minutes before his friends were going to arrive so he decided to do a little more window shopping at some of the stores. Nothing there was really his style but at least it would pass the time. As he was walking up Commerce Street he saw Mike Mizanin exiting the Barnes and Noble book store with a bag in his hand.

"Hey Miz. Doing some shopping?" Jeff greeted, coming up beside Mike.

Mizanin nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Jeff's voice but quickly wiped the surprised look off of his face and turned to smile at his coworker. "Hey, yeah." He held up the bag that he'd brought out of the store. "Just picking up a few gifts for some family back home. Didn't know anyone else would be in Fort Worth since all of the shows are going on in Arlington."

"Well, got a lunch date with Callie and Phil. She's taking us to some cajun place over across the street." Jeff paused for a minute, wondering about the weird look that came over the shorter man as he had said who he was meeting for lunch. "You still sittin at my table for the autograph signings later tomorrow?"

Mike looked completely caught off guard. "Oh, uh, I guess. I just got here this morning and haven't touched base with relations yet to get my schedules and all. I was actually going to head there after I hit up one more store." Mike couldn't believe it. He had eventually been able to put that dreadful note he'd drunkenly written to Callie out of his mind while he was home. He'd had plenty of distractions hanging with his friends and family. But once he had boarded his plane to Dallas for some promotions and the Axxess event the worry had crept back into his mind. Having Jeff practically creep up on him on the street wasn't helping. There were plenty of bookstores in Arlington. He had purposefully driven the 20 minutes out to Ft Worth not only to take in some culture but to avoid his coworkers and hopefully sort out his thoughts on the matter before having to face everyone and pretend it hadn't happened. Many times he had contemplated just coming out with it and telling her that it was him and that it had been a drunken mistake. He really did have a crush on her but had there not been alcohol involved then he never would have voiced his feelings the way he did. Especially knowing that she was in a relationship with Batista. The big man would pound him flatter than a crepe.

Thankfully, a voice resounded from across the street and caught their attention. Jeff turned towards the sounds and saw Callie and Phil coming up on the restaurant and waving to him. He turned back towards Mike to say bye but all the saw was the other man's back as he speedily made his way farther down the street. It seemed odd that the normally outspoken man was just wandering off without adding another of his own two cents and it struck Jeff as slightly odd. Jeff shrugged it off and crossed the street at the corner to meet up with Cal and Phil.

...

"So what's the name of this place again?" Jeff, Callie and Punk (Phil to everyone else but Callie had always still called him Punk and soon it had become a habit with Jeff as well) had been seated in a booth towards a back corner of the restaurant. It was almost it's own small hallway with booths on either side, each with their own small flatscreen televsision mounted on the wall beside it. Just stepping inside the doors had been sensory overload, even for Jeff. Zydeco music blared from the speakers over the bar, televisions and hundreds of strings of lights cast ever changing light over the walls and ceiling and in almost every bare space on the wall was every manner of license plate, fishing net, crawfish sculptures and other bayou-themed items. Jeff felt like he could have sat there all day and still not had time to examine everything in the place.

"Razoo's," Callie answered back. "One of the only restaurants in any part of the country outside of Louisiana where you can get awesome cajun food."

Jeff wondered at the dreamy look that came over here when she said it. It was like a dog drooling over a bone. "You're from Texas Cal. Shouldn't you be salivating over barbeque and baked beans?"

"Fuuuuuuunny," Callie laughed at the stereotype. She knew he didn't mean it in any demeaning manner. "Actually when I was younger I stayed at a few homes in Louisiana for a couple of years and completely fell in love with it. The culture, the music and especially the food." What Callie hadn't said was that she had found out later on was that her biological mother had actually been born and raised in Louisiana and cajun culture was in her blood.

"So what do they have here?" Jeff picked up the menu and scanned though it but even that seemed to be a little too much for him. Their menus consisted of a single large paper, laminated over and was just as jumbled as the walls with no conceivable rhyme or reason.

"Well," Punk spoke up, having been to the restaurant with Callie quite a few times when they could find one in the area they were having a show in. "The frog legs are pretty good but the fried alligator tail is to die for! The gumbo's awesome too."

At the sound of such strange cuisine, most people would have cringed. Frogs? Alligators? But Jeff, being the daredevil that he was, was nonplussed. He was up for anything. He spent another few minutes trying to make heads or tails of the menu before finally giving up and laying it back down on the table. "How about you order for me? Give me a little taste of what you like."

Callie smiled, knowing full well that the menu itself had probably given him a headache. "Okay well, if we're gonna do it that way, how about an appetizer of crawfish fondue, the biggest platter of alligator tail they have and I'll grab a side of crawfish for us too?"

Punk set down his menu, agreeing with her choices and changed the channel on the small tv in the booth. He stopped on a cable sports channel that apparently had reporters out in Arlington right now and were interviewing some of the wrestlers before the upcoming events. At the moment a tall, leggy blonde was holding up a microphone to Bryan Danielson, better known as Daniel Bryan to his fans and haters, and going through the motions of all of same questions they were always asked. Didn't anyone ever have the imagination to come up with some new ones?

"Geez, man," Callie started. "I know he really is a good person out of the ring and all but he really needs to shave that beard. Trim it down. Something!"

Jeff laughed and nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, like a certain someone else we know, right?"

"Hey!" Punk knew that Jeff was referring to him and his newly grown out beard. "I resent that! It's not like we all have the time to stand over the sink for two hours a day with a precision trimmer," he joked back at the rainbow haired man.

"I do not take two hours! Just one at the most!"

Callie giggled at him. "He's right Rainbow Brite! You give a whole new meaning to the term 'manscaping'! Besides, I'm almost tempted to ask Brie if that big patch of hair ever gets in the way in the bedroom."

That got a weird look from both of the guys. "Gets in the way?" Punk asked.

"Well yeah," Callie looked only slightly embarrassed for blurting it out but, at the same time, she'd always felt like she could talk with both of the guys about anything. Especially the embarrassing stuff. "I mean, think about it. You're getting all hot and heavy with a girl and decide to head 'downtown'. Guys' facial hair usually isn't all soft like your regular hair is. It's all coarse. That's gotta cause some major chaffing!"

After a moment of contemplative silence Punk seemed to have a sudden epiphany. "Remind me to shave when we get back."

Everyone at the table laughed at that one. They continued to chatter about the interviews until their food arrived. Jeff had to agree with Punk and Cal that the alligator tail was awesome and the crafish fondue was heavenly although he knew he'd spend an extra hour in the gym later working off all of the grease he was overloading his system with. Callie spent the better part of an hour laughing at him for trying to learn how to properly open and eat a whole crawfish, or, as she called them, mudbugs. Overall it was a great time out for all three. By the time they paid their bill and headed out the door into the Texas heat, Callie was reminded just how grateful she was to have them as brother figures in her life.

...

To say that he was pissed was an understatement. How long could they possibly stay out and about without having to head back for meetings and to get ready for the week's upcoming events? He had overheard Callie telling that asshole Phil that she wanted to be back home by late afternoon so she could catch up with some designs she'd been working on. He'd been sitting in the parking garage with an eye on their car for two hours now. Where the hell were they? After following them from the convention center he had decided that it would be safer to stay in the parking garage and stake out the car they had arrived in than try to follow them around the crowded downtown streets without being seen. She had been in the car with Phil and he had been sure that they were going to be meeting up with someone else from the company, possibly for some shopping or food, and he would be recognized immediately. With all off the tourists and fans in town for Wrestlemania as well, it wouldn't be worth it to draw a crowd when he was trying to stalk someone.

All searched he'd done to try and find her house had turned up nothing. He knew his plan wouldn't work out any other way. He had to have her address and he had to have it today. If he wanted things to go just his way then he had to put everything into motion and he had to do it soon. He had one week until Wrestlemania and everything had to go off with no problems before then. Wrestlemania was going to be his redemption. Wrestlemania was going to tell the whole world that he was not one to be reckoned with.


	9. Chapter 8

**Someone pointed out to me about me talking about Daniel Bryan being in the bedroom with Brie Bella instead of AJ. He and AJ are only together on the show. He and Brie have dated in real life in the past and apparently have started back up here lately. There's even talk of them working it into the wwe story line soon so that's why that's like that. . I'm thinking of creating a separate fb page or something where I can post all of the pics I have of around here because they're most of the places that I've chosen to put in this and other stories. I actually have a pic I'm looking at now that shows the exact view that Jeff sees in the first paragraph of this chapter. Does anyone think that's a good idea? I know pics aren't essential to the story but since I'm basing a lot in this story on these places (and a lot of my future stories I've planned because it's easier to write about places that you know) I thought some readers might like to actually see it. Plus looking back at some of the pics have actually inspired things I'm putting in the story like the tattoo convention (actually went) and the little girl with the temporary tattoos and pink hair (my neice Zoe). I thought it might be a good way to post pics and to also have updates. Please let me know what you think about the idea guys!**

Chapter 8

The day dawned bright and early at the Arlington Convention Center and at 7am the heat was already setting the mood for the rest of the day. It was only the last week of March but already the north Texas weather could change from wonderful and breezy to stifling and humid at the drop of a hat. It didn't ease anyone's mind that tornado season was well upon them. Before Jeff headed into the convention center he took a minute to look around the outside. Right in front of him, the steps leading out of the building went down to the parking lot and right past that was a beautiful field that was obviously used for baseball in the warmer seasons with a rather large pond in it. Right past that was Rangers Ballpark where Texas' baseball team set records and won games. If he had gone down a couple of the steps and looked to his right he would have a great view of Cowboys Stadium. The thing that got him about Arlington was how it was a sizable but all of the more important attractions were all clumped together within just a mile or two's radius of each other. Yesterday Callie had shown him one spot right outside of Lincoln Square where you could stand and look out in one direction and see Cowboy's Stadium, Ranger Ballpark (better know as the Ballpark at Arlington to locals), Six Flags over Texas and Hurricane Harbor all at once. The convention center was nestled in a small groove merely a few hundred yards from Ranger Ballpark. Since it was still early morning everything still had that slight haze about it and Jeff had to admit, if only to himself, that the pond between where he stood and the ballpark was quite beautiful. He took a mental picture of the scene and turned to head into the building.

Seeing as how it was still really early and the events weren't due to start for a while the building was almost void of people with the exception of some crew members and personnel. There were a couple of news crews already setting up their cameras and some photographers getting some early shots for the behind-the-scenes articles in the WWE magazine. Off to Jeff's right was a small hallway that led off to other parts of the building. He took the long hallway right in front of him passing bathrooms on his right and offices on his left before seeing Stephanie halfway down the corridor. She was standing right in front of the double doors leading into the main convention room, an exceptionally large area set aside for various shows. Callie had told him once that she had come here with John right after they had first met. John had wanted to know more about her interests and hobbies and she had talked him into attending a tattoo convention in this very room. John still hadn't been really into the idea of getting tattoos (at least for himself) but he had gained a better understanding of her love for it and had gained a lot of respect for the artists that spent their lives training and working in the profession.

"Jeff, we weren't expecting you for a little while yet but I'm glad you're here," Stephanie beamed when she saw him. Stephanie's job as head of the creative department was something she loved but also something that could be extremely stressful at times. She always loved it when Jeff was around because with his energy and upbeat, joker attitude he always manged to liven up the party and sometimes she could end up laughing so hard that she could take a stressful situation she had been dealing with and look at it in an entirely new, happy light. He seemed to have that effect on people.

"Yeah, I've been up a while. Figured I'd get here early and seduce you before your husband showed up..."Jeff kept a sheepish grin on his face to go with his joking tone of voice. Stephanie, or course, laughed at his joke. Paul, better known as Triple H, was in fact there already but even if he had overheard it he would have joined in on the joke as well.

After she had laughed off the humor she reached into the attache she was holding and handed him a couple of papers. "There's been a couple of changes to the day's events. The Make-A-Wish foundation called at the last minute with a little girl who wants nothing but to see you! And we've switched around a couple of the autograph signings so just look that over if you could and let me know if there's anything on the schedule you're too crammed for. And don't worry, we've carved a lunch break and some down time for ya too." She added with her own joking lilt, "We all know how dangerous your ADD can be when you're stuck sitting at a table signing autographs and answering questions for too long!"

Jeff laughed at the memory. Of course she was referring to the one incident, a year ago, when he had been sitting at one of the long tables with some of the other superstars for far too long and had gotten antsy and bored. Eventually he'd decided to add his own version of entertainment and had randomly jumped up on the table and began doing the dance he performed every night as he came down the ramp for a show. Of course, he crowd had loved it and he had managed to bring some good humor back to some of the restless fans who had been standing in line for too long just for a simple photo op, hello and a quick autograph.

Looking down and skimming the schedule over Jeff noticed he'd be at a table with Orton, Sheamus and Punk. Not that he had anything against those guys but he had been prepared for Orton, Miz and Mysterio. "The autograph tables changed?" He glanced back up at Steph.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I try not to change things at the last minute but it happens. Instead of putting them right up here we're going to set them up in the back so we have room for the lines. They're also going to be an hour later so they don't coincide with the mock magazine photo shoot we've set up."

"It's not that, I was just looking forward to hanging out with Oscar and Mike." Had Jeff said Rey anyone would have known who he was talking about. The funny part about talking about his coworkers in public was that most fans didn't even know their real names.

"Well Oscar flew home to San Diego until tomorrow. His daughter have to have an emergency appendectomy. She'll be fine but he wanted to be there for her. And Mike requested a different table. Something about wanting to get to know some of the other guys better." It had seemed like a bullshit excuse to Stephanie but she'd been so busy dealing with all of the other details that she hadn't bothered to grill him for the real reason. She'd figured it had something to do with the little spat he and Orton had had backstage a while back. Something about them both going after the same girl (which was bull all in itself because Randy was happily married and anyone who knew him would know that he'd never go after another woman). Either way, she'd been too swamped to get into the details and just went ahead and made the change.

Jeff didn't have time to respond to her because from inside the event room Orton had called his name and was motioning for him to come over. Jeff quickly assured Steph that the changes were cool with him and headed over to see what Orton was calling him for. There were more people inside the massive room than out in the halls. Even though the Axxess event didn't start for another 2 days they were going to be doing a lot of photo shoots and autograph signings here for some organizations that the company worked with, including a lot of charities. If fans thought it was expensive and hard to get tickets to the Axxess events sometimes, they had no idea what some of these other visitors went through to get to the uber exclusive pre-events. Most of them had worked for years with charities, were victims of crime or disease and had been given help by the charities or had been associated with the WWE for so long that they were well acquainted with almost everyone in the company. Jeff waved to a few people he recognized before coming up in front of Orton.

"Wassup, man?"

"Hey Hardy. There's something I wanted to talk to you about." He pulled an envelope from his pocket. "Actually, John wanted to talk to you about it but he's busy at the moment so I thought I would."

Randy opened the envelope and pulled out a single piece of folded paper, handing it to the rainbow haired man. The same piece of paper that he had found on his hotel room door almost six weeks ago. This autograph signing would be the perfect time to try and identify if one of the wrestlers present had sent it to Callie. And both Randy and John knew that Jeff would be up for some covert ops.

...

She was mad. No, she was beyond mad. Callie was fucking irate and was seriously having some problems with not taking it out on everything and everyone around her as she furiously stormed around the corridors of the stadium. Wrestlers and crew members alike looked up at the sound of her approach; her heels stomping on the tiled floors, the papers in her hand flapping as her arms swung, she was muttering slightly to herself in hushed, angry tones. She had recieved the large manilla envelope late last night along with some other files that had been given to her at the meeting she attended after her lunch date with Jeff and Punk. All of the papers had been thrown into her bag and after heading back to her house, Callie had ended up watching movies and popping open a few beers with John, Jeff, Jeff's brother Matt and Randy . They'd ended up drinking too much and staying up so late Callie had never taken the time to go through all of the envelopes and paperwork she'd stowed away. In fact, she had had so many whiskey shots with Jeff and Matt that she really didn't even remember much about last night. There was a vague memory of Jeff leaping off of her dresser and flipping onto the bed and another of some late night truth or dare game but that was it. Well, almost it. She did remember that car that had sat outside for a couple of hours. She'd never seen it before and it didn't look like it had been bought by any of her neighbors. But after the alcohol had taken hold she'd brushed it off as some fan who had seen her and the boys coming back from the stadium and, after she noticed it had disappeared, compeltely forgot about it.

Today she wasn't even scheduled to be at the stadium til late afternoon when the trucks would arrive with the last of her set pieces but after popping some aspirin for her hangover and going through all of the papers, she'd stormed out of the house, ignoring the strange looks from Matt and Jeff as she slammed the door and jumped into her car. She made her way straight to the stadium and had not even answered anyone when they'd greeted her or asked questions. She was on a mission. Coming around a corner she saw the room she was lookin for and pushed through the door without even knocking or caring who else was around.

Dave was sitting in a chair going through his bag when Callie burst through the dressing room door and stomped immediately over to him. He was more than slightly surprised at the outburst that ensued, being more used the calm and collected Callie that he'd first met.

"When the fuck were you planning on telling me about this?" Callie very nearly screamed in Dave's face. She hadn't even bothered to acknowledge the two workers standing in the room. They were staring at her right now open-mouthed.

"Baby, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about THIS!" She threw the papers in David's lap, hoping like hell he ended up with papercuts all over his legs. She knew that was a pretty childish wish but at the moment, she didn't care.

Dave picked up the three pieces, making sure to grab the one that had floated to the floor, and scanned through them quickly, letting out a deep sigh without looking up at her. He waved the two technicians out of the room and slowly stood up from his chair to shut the door behind them, clicking the lock on the doorknob. Then he just stood there for a moment, hand on the doorknob, taking a couple of deep breaths. Not only had he never seen Callie this angry, but he knew completely well that it really was his fault and had he just been honest with her from the start then this wouldn't have happened. He'd been too scared of how she would react to tell her sooner but now he realized that he should have just come out and said it when he'd had the chance before. Before it had all gotten out of hand. Slowly he turned around and looked at her for a second before speaking. She was standing stiffly, arms straight down at her sides, her chest heaving with anger.

"Babe, let me explain," he lifted his hands up, palms out in a submissive gesture, hoping it help. The look in her eye had him picturing her doing a running spear on him, tackling him to the ground and clawing his eyes out.

"Explain? Okay, explain it to me David. Explain to me how you just up and decided to leave the company and everyone here and you didn't think that I would want to hear that from you! Instead," she took another deep breath, still yelling at him loud enough to make him cringe. "You decide to let me find out when I'm the one assigned to handle the set designs for your farewell promos! Yes, David, explain it to me because I'd just LOVE you understand your thinking behind all of this." She crossed her arms in front of her and glared at him, her eyes daring him to try to come up with an excuse.

"Callie, honey, I just...I didn't know how to tell you." He sighed again and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "I put it off because it would be too hard."

"And when were you planning on telling me? Or were you ever gonna tell me at all? Were you going to just leave and wait until I figured out you weren't coming back?" Callie stormed over to the couch in the room and flopped down onto it. She was still irate over the situation but the angry outburst mixed with the hangover was starting to get to her head. The throbbing started at her temples and spread outward over her brow.

"Baby, no, I was going to tell you, I promise." Dave walked over to her on the couch and carefully sat down beside her, not believing for a second that she was calm enough to not hit him. "I was going to wait until after Wrestlemania though. I just thought that with all the chaos, it would be better to talk about it when all of the events were over."

"Well that obviously didn't work." Callie said coldly, refusing to even look at him.

"Well, I put it off too because...well, because I was scared Cal. I didn't want you to get upset."

At that remark, the fire under Callie's ass was suddenly reignited. She leaped up from the couch and twirled around to face him, raising her voice once more. "YOU WERE SCARED! Really Dave? So me finding out this way was just SO much better? What the hell could scare your ass so bad that you couldn't tell me the truth, yourself? Why would it be so damn hard for you?"

"Because I Love You!" Dave suddenly screamed, standing up and shouting it down at her. All at once he regretted it. They had never said it to each other before, although Dave had been feeling this way for the past few months now. Knowing how skittish she could be when it came to personal relationships though, he had been trying to take it slow with trying for a commitment.

"You...what? You..." Callie couldn't seem to get the words out. She was stunned. But not just because of what he said. When Dave had jumped up from his spot and bellowed the words he seemed more angry than anything and as he towered over her she immediately became scared.

"Yeah, I love you Callie. I didn't want to tell you I was leaving because then it would upset and I don't ever want to see you upset like that...especially knowing it was because of me."

"You...you asshole." Cal managed the words out at little more than a whisper and immediately turned, unlocking the door and heading out into the corridor. Either the technicians that had been in the room before had spread the word or all of the yelling had attracted quite a bit of attention but either way, all eyes were on Callie as she stormed out of the room and straight down the hallway. She had to find her brother. She needed someone to hug her and make her feel better and she knew John was in the building as well. Jeff would have already left her house and headed to the convention center with Randy for their charity signings and Punk was off doing lord-knows-what with that chick he'd met last night.

She was most of the way down the hall to John's dressing room before she realized she had gone the wrong way. Looking up and down the hallway she groaned in frustration and went back the way she came, taking the second hallway on her left and following it down to the end. The door stood wide open and John was hanging out on the couch, staring at the monitor in the room tuned to Cartoon Network. She lightly tapped on the open door to get his attention.

John turned at the sound, reluctant to leave his episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. It was his favorite episode with the appearance of the maniac barber. Looking up at her face though, he immediately lost interest in the cartoon. John stood up and went to her, pulling her into his arms. "Hey sweetie, what's wrong? You look like hell." John could see the sadness and anger in her eyes.

"John," she didn't even try to return his hug, just standing limply in his arms. "Dave's leaving the company. I got the paperwork for his promo shoots. And John, you're supposed to be doing the promos with him. I mean, how could they not tell anyone about this?"

Now it was John who had to let out the deep sigh. "Well," he started but didn't get to get much farther. Callie had caught the tone in his voice and immediately withdrew from his arms, pushing him slightly away from her. She looked straight into his blue eyes, daring him to lie to her.

"You knew?" Somehow she managed to make it sound like a question and an accusation all at the same time. She took a few steps back from him again, almost all the way back out into the hallway.

"Callie, he told me a while back."

"How far back?" When John didn't answer she reiterated. "How FAR back John!"

John's head hung lower. "Right before the left for England." It was barely loud enough for her to hear. All Callie could do was back up into the hallway completely, shaking her head in disgust. Her own brother. It had taken her so long to ever learn how to trust him; so damn long. And now here was keeping a huge secret that he had known that he shouldn't. "CC, I told him to tell you. He wanted to wait."

"YOU could have told me."

"It wasn't my secret to tell sweetie."

"Don't call me that. And just shut it. I've heard enough excuses for one day. Just...leave me alone." And before John could say anything she was gone; making her way down the hall and out of the arena, never looking back.


	10. Chapter 9

**I still haven't decided if the proverbial sht it going to hit the fan at the end of this chapter or the next one. I still had a few things I wanted to cover before the mystery man puts his plan into action but I've whittled them down a little so as to get to the action faster but I'm still not sure. I'm just going to start typing and we'll see how it goes. So, when you read this chapter, you'll know I'll be just as surprised at the end of it as you guys! :)**

Chapter 9

Randy wasn't sure why the hell he was trying to do this. Well, he did know really because Callie was John's little sister and if someone was going to send her weird notes then they should at least know who it is. He did have to admit that nothing new had popped up since that one time but you could never be too careful. Even if they didn't decide to confront the person who had sent it Randy would feel better at least knowing who to watch out for. He had been sitting at his table signing autographs, posing for pictures and chatting with fans for the past three hours and he was actually starting to lose some steam. He'd wanted to tryt to be keeping an eye on some of the other guys' signatures to see if the handwriting might at least resemble the kind on the note but he'd been too busy trying to keep focused on the fans as well and they deserved that at least. Jeff had been down with the idea once he'd learned about what had been left on Randy's hotel room door a while back but he wasn't so keen on Callie not knowing about it. When Jeff had voiced his opinion on the matter Randy had flashbacked to when Dave had told John he would be leaving the company and they had both tried to convince him to go ahead and tell her. Little did he know that while he was filling Jeff in on yet another secret that Callie didn't know about, she had been at the arena confronting both Dave and her brother.

Finally their lunch break had come and as Randy stood up from his chair a little girl bounded up to the table with a picture in his hand. She couldn't have been more than seven and her looks were so outrageous and so adorable at the same time he found it easy to ignore the rumbling in his stomach and stay to sign her picture. She had bright pink hair done up in pigtails and had been covered from her chest to her legs in temporary tattoos. Following right behind her was her mother who also had dyed hair and was covered in real tattoos. They were such a pair that Randy found himself staying longer than he meant to, talking with the little girl about her favorite wrestlers and how she had gotten to come to the meet and greet. When they had finally left and he checked his watch lunch was almost half over. He didn't even think to check the messages on his cell phone in his sudden quest for lunch.

...

Callie had no idea where she was going. She'd stormed out of the arena, gotten into her car and just started driving. She'd ended up down by Collins Street and didn't even know why. It was in the opposite direction of her house and there wasn't much to do down this way unless you were grocery shopping or wanted to hit up the dollar store. She'd pulled over into the parking lot of one of the local corner stores so she didn't have to drive while she was on her phone. Arlington was full of them. They didn't even sell gas, just lots of alcohol. After shutting down the engine she had pulled out her cell phone and tried calling both Jeff and Punk but they both probably had their phones off; Jeff busy with his company duties and Punk most likely still too enthralled with the girl he'd met last night. After leaving them both messages to call her she'd texted Randy. She knew he was busier than Jeff since his match this Wrestlemania was a turning point in his career so she didn't call him directly. As much as she wanted to talk to him he had a habit of forgetting to turn his phone off and she didn't want to get him into trouble by hanving it ring at an inopportune time.

After staring at the sterring wheel for what seemed like forever, she finally made a decision. _Fuck it, _She thought to herself. Callie quickly sent a text to Jeff telling him she wasn't going to be working today and she'd meet them all back at the house tonight whenever they got done. Then she exited the car and headed into the corner store. When she was growing up and even after she'd been out on her own she'd never been one to wallow in her troubles. But tonight she felt different. Tonight, for the first time in her life, Callie was going to sit at home and drown her troubles in alcohol and be damned anyone who wanted to say anything about it.

Callie came back out ten minutes later carrying a six pack and and a bottle of Jack, loaded them into the backseat and headed home. She'd contemplated sending messages to Dave telling him she didn't want him visiting her house right now and John to say she'd have Jeff bring him his things later whenever he got a hotel room but thought the better of it. The more she tried to push them both away, the more they would try to be near her to apologize. That wasn't what she wanted right now. A good stiff drink and a hot bath was in order and she had a nice empty house in which to enjoy it. She hit interstate 30 and headed for home.

...

The atmosphere in the arena was quickly turning for the worse. After Callie's rampage at Dave and subsequent arguement with John, it had seemed the entire building was on edge. The loud pounding and growls coming from Dave's dressing room weren't helping the situation. In fact, poor Tim Bakers, one of the technicians that had been in the room when Cal had barged in looked like he was about to run like a scared little boy at the commotion that could be heard through the dressing room door. It sounded like an wild animal had been let loose in a room full of breakable objects.

On the other side of the door Dave was almost as angry as Callie had been earlier but it was an inward anger. He was more mad at himself than anything. On on hand, he should have told her about his plans much sooner, he wasn't denying that. He'd royally fucked up. But how in the hell could he have told her he was in love with her? He hadn't meant to say it at all and he'd gotten so riled up it had just happened. It wasn't a lie by any means. David had been in love with her for months but he'd never voiced it before. Their relationship was at a good place and they had both been happy with it. At least up until Dave had realized his feelings for Callie. He'd wanted more after that but had worried the thought of such a commitment would scare her off, especially considering how little they got to be together anyway. Dave had been willing to hide his feelings if it meant being able to keep what little he had with her now. But dammit, then he had to go a fuck it up. He growled out loud again at his own stupidity and punched yet another hole in the wall beside the dressing room door.

...

On his side of the arena, John had turned off the tv and sat in quiet contemplation in the empty room, his head in his hands. How did he turn into this person? He wasn't supposed to be the person that CC was mad at...ever. Wasn't he the one who had worked so hard to earn her trust and love all that time ago? Hadn't he promised her that he would never do anything that would hurt her? Well, all of that could be thrown out the window now. He had known from the start that Callie should have been warned of Dave's impending departure as soon as possible so she could have adjusted to the idea. She had had so little in her life that had been stable that John knew she didn't like sudden surprises. Well, surprises like these anyway. Eventually she might have gotten over it but she had always needed time to adjust. And John knew that most of this was his fault and not Dave's. Sure, Dave had asked him not to tell her yet and that it would have been better had she heard it from his own lips but John didn't have to agree. Even if he had he should have broken his promise and told her anyway. All he had done now was give her a reason not to trust him, which was another one of those promises he had made when they had started getting close. How was he going o fix this?

...

Callie sunk down lower into the tub and sighed at the warm water flowing over her. One of her favorite things about her master bathroom was the garden tub. It didn't have any jets or anything but with all the extra space Callie felt like she could almost go swimming in it. It was set right up against bay windows looking out into the backyard. Living in her small, rundown apartment that had been one of the things that she had alwasy seen on television and dreamed about having one day. A large tub with huge windows that looked out into a beautiful backyard garden. Well, she didn't have the garden yet, only her little yard, but she'd been on the road for so long that she hadn't time to make any of the remodels that she had been planning on. Outside the sun was beginning to set and the light was dimming.

Callie had come home and thrown her own little fit while no one else was there. Nothing too major. She'd thrown most of her clothes out of her closet and all around her room and her bed was completely messed up. It wasn't quite the fit she'd wanted to throw but growing up poor Callie didn't have the heart to do any actual damage to her personal belongings or her home. The next best thing was throwing around all of the things that she couldn't actually break. Afterwards she'd had herself a good cry and then, almost magically, she'd felt better. Not completely better, of course, but enough to feel like she could actually function somewhat normally. Not really feeling like making herself a late lunch she'd settled for cracking open a beer and planting herself in front of the tv. The news actually hadn't been so bad until they started talking about the big upcoming events with the WWE and showing snippets of some interviews from earlier this morning with some of the superstars. When John's short interview had come up he was as captivating to the audience as always. He answered all the questions thrown at him with a witty confidence. But he didn't quite look like himself. Callie thought he almost looked sad even though she was sure no one else would see it. Just seconds after finding herself feeling sorry for him the old anger came rushing back. Of course he should look like he felt bad. He had every reason to feel lilke shit. He'd basically lied to her by pretending everything was okay and that his little sister wasn't going to get her heart broken...

That very thought had caused Callie to stop and look at herself in an almost out-of-body sort of way. Get her heart broken? But she and Dave weren't really together. They were only having some fun while they could and enjoying their friendship in the process. How could feelings possibly be involved? Then she flashed back to what Dave had said; had practically screamed. He loved her. And just maybe the whole reason that confession had really pissed her off was because...maybe...just maybe, she loved him too. The realization was like a punch in the gut and Cal had no intention of sitting around long enough for it to really sink in. She didn't want to think right now. She wanted to just forget it and worry about it later. Right now all she wanted was to be at peace for just a little while. Callie had grabbed the bottle of whiskey and shot glass and made her way up to run her bath.

And there she had been for the past two hours, running new water when the old had gotten too cool for comfort. 2 beers and 5 shots of whiskey later and she had managed to finally get back into a good mood. The warm water, the sun setting outside. It was so damn peaceful she'd nearly forgotten about all of the events of the day and was mentally planning new ways of scaring the crap out of Jeff until her landline rang, suddenly slicing throught the thick silence she'd allowed herself to sink into. Not wanting to leave the sanctuary of her newly warmed bath she let it ring. The machine in her bedroom picked up and she heard Punk's voice coming through the speakers.

"Hey Cal, we got your message from earlier. Everything okay? We thought we'd all go out and grab some dinner before heading back to the house. Let us know if you want us to pick you up anything..."

"HI CALLIE!" Came a piercing yell from the background.

Punk laughed a little. "Jeff says hi babe! Anyway, let us know what's up. You sounded kind of off in your message earlier. Later babe!"

The machine clicked off and Cal was in silence once more. But dammit now she couldn't enjoy it as much. She might have wanted John to feel as bad as he should but the alcohol was working on her and she actually did feel bad knowing that Jeff and Punk were worried about her. She reached over the side of the tub and dried her hands on the towel before grabbing her cell phone off of the floor beside it. She quickly typed in a message to Punk that she was fine and they didn't need to being her back anything for dinner. She'd tell them about it all later and they should have a good time. Almost immediately she got a smiley face in return.

Not she felt better. She hoped John was going out with them so she wouldn't have to deal with him alone. Without the others here as a buffer then he would probably want to try to talk about what happened and she wadn't ready for that yet. She wasn't ready to forgive him. She downed another shot before pulling the plug on the drain and carefully climbing out. Maybe getting lost in a book would help. Hell, with the whiskey in her system anything would be interesting right about now.

It wasn't until a few minutes later, after she had dried off and begun pulling on her clothes that she heard the door open and close downstairs. She'd already wiggled into her pajama pants and her bra. Thinking that the guys had changed their minds about going out and come back anyway, she quickly pulled on a tight tanktop and ran her fingers through her wet hair before flicking off the light and heading out through the bedroom and into the upstairs hallway. "Hey guys!" She called out, trying not to sound totally buzzed. Thankfully she wasn't drunk yet but she was well on her way. When Callie didn't get an answer she tried calling out again with no luck.

It was then that she was struck with the realization that the house was still way too quiet. Normally when the guys walked in her door, especially Jeff and Punk, they were boisterous and noisy. She should be hearing them talking about what they did at the convention center today and Matt should be jingling jars and bottles around while rummaging through her fridge. But it was stone silent. What should have been her first clue that something was amiss was clouded over by the whiskey and she managed to halfway convince herself that she had imagined the noise. Maybe she should head to the kitchen and rummage through the fridge herself so she could soak up some of the liquor in ther stomach. Probably a good idea.

Carefully she made her way down the stairs, making sure to keep her footing. She hadn't thought to turn on any lights downstairs before her bath and without the sun filtering through the windows it was completely dark. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs she flicked the switch at the bottom to turn on the living room light. All was in place and the front door was still locked so maybe she really had imagined it all.

Turning to her right to head towards the kitchen Callie flipped another switch on the wall to turn on the three pendant lights over the breakfast bar and stopped dead in her tracks. Standing there in front of her stove was a large, hulking figure. Too tall and bulky to be any of the men taking up residence in her home at the moment. After a split second of confusion and fear it dawned on her that she knew this man. His dark hair and trim, muscular figure. The dark eyes and crooked grin looking dangerous in the dim light. The same man who had lost his title to John just a little over a month ago and who had proceeded to hit on her backstage afterwards. Callie breathed in in a gasp as the terror suddenly overwhelmed her. Her heart pounded and she couldn't breathe. This man was not supposed to be in her house. His grin widened into a devilish smirk that send more jolts of fear racing through her body.

When she finally could speak, it was little more than a whisper. "What are you doing here?" The words seemed deafening in the silence.

He was so calm, so collected and looked so damn smug. "You owe me a date, Love. And that brother of yours owes me a title belt."

Even as angry as she was at him, the last sane thought that ran through Callie's mind was a silent screaming thought for John to come save her. Very nearly willing him to hear her thoughts wherever he was and keep this man away from her before she felt her entire body hitting the tiled floor, the wind being knocked out of her. She heard the sickening thud of her head pounding on the floor and then there was nothing but black.


	11. Chapter 10

**Okay, so sorry it's been longer than I wanted between updates. Since I still mainly write at night when my roommate goes to work and I'm taking care of her kids during the day while she sleeps, the weekends are a bit hectic for me with the kids not going to school. It's hard to concentrate on getting a good chapter out when I'm constantly breaking up fights and making meals. lol.**

**Also, I know I've been trying to use the wrestlers real names more than their in-ring names (except for Punk but that's just what Callie likes to call him) but I've decided that for Mr Mystery Man I'm going to use his ring name instead of his real one. No real reason other than the fact that I just don't like his real name. **

**And lastly, a huge thanks to all of my reviewers who love the story and keep asking for more. You guys rock! When I first got the idea for this story and thought about writing it to post I really didn't think that my writing was good enough for anyone to want to read it. You guys are awesome. therealchamps, SandraSmit19** **and BubblyShell22...thanks for liking the story!**

Chapter 10

"And seriously dude, what were you thinking with that girl? She looked at you like you had to heads!"

"What?" Jeff asked as innocently as possible. "If I'm going to ask a girl out I have to know if she at least thinks I'm funny first." The grin on his face told otherwise though. Punk had an idea that Jeff was just trying out new material before he used it to freak out the entire WWE roster. The girl at the restaurant had been an easy target for him and after seeing how she had treated the wait staff, he didn't feel bad about it in the least. As he pulled into the driveway of Callie's and shut off the engine, the headlights of the car behind him glared into the rearview mirror. John pulled his Charger in behind theirs and opened the door to step out. Jeff and Punk let out a collective sigh, knowing what was probably coming. Over dinner, they had heard about Callie's little meltdown earlier at the arena and her fights with both Dave and John. So going into the house was either going to start another yelling match or she would completely ignore him and make the night more tense for everyone. "Well," Jeff said turning his head to Punk. "Guess we better go face it head on." Punk nodded and they both exited their vehicle as John walked up.

"I hate to say it man," John said. "But I'm actually kind of scared to go in there."

Punk gave him a reassuring slap on the shoulder. "Whatever it is, she'll forgive you eventually. You're her brother, man, she loves you."

John didn't look convinced but nodded and walked up towards the door with the other two men in tow. Unlocking the door and stepping inside John immediately felt like something wasn't right. The house was eerily quiet. The television, which could always be heard from right inside the front door wasn't on. That was the first thing he had noticed and it was highly unlike Callie. Evn if she wasn't actually paying attention to whatever show as on, Cal always had the tv for background noise. Either that or the stereo and that couldn't he heard either. Part of him wanted to say that she was upstairs hiding out in her room but, pulling up into the driveway, he didn't see any lights on in her room and she always slept with a small lamp on because she tended to freak herself out when she was alone at night. Obviously she had been home because her car was there. John continued into the living room and looked around for signs of her. There was a half empty beer bottle on the coffee table and the television remote was on the floor, something else that was unlike Callie, who always made sure the remote was on the table because she hated having to look for it. What the hell was going on here?

"Maybe she's upstairs," Jeff said, seeing the worried look on John's face. "I'll run up there and check."

While waiting for Jeff to return with news, John flipped through some of the paperwork she had strewn over the coffee table. Mostly it was reports and invoices for her work at the WWE but off to one side were sketches of furniture that were obviously her own little projects. He shufled through a couple of them and managed half a smile. She really was great at what she did and her creativity never failed to amaze him. He looked up as Jeff bounded back into the room carrying a mostly full bottle of Jack and Callie's dead cell phone. "Well, she apparently was here. She's not in her room though but these were in her bathroom. Checked the guest rooms too. No sign." All three of them looked a little worried now. Even as pissed off and upset as she was, pullin disappearing act was not like Callie at all. Even if she still didn't want to talk to John, at the very least, she would have sent Jeff or Punk a text letting them know she was going out so they didn't worry when they got home. And she'd never let herself get drunk enough to act irresponsibly, especially when she was alone. Deciding to check her phone to see if she called anyone to come pick her up John rose and walked towards the kitchen to plug it into the charger, stopping dead in his tracks as soon as he reached the doorway. He opened his mouth to yell to the others but no words would come out. His blue eyes glazed over as he took in the scene before him and a gruesome realization dawned on him.

Glass was broken all over the floor and looking up above the bar he saw that many of the wine glasses hanging there were now missing. Over to his right the chairs were overturned by the kitchen table and several bottles of wine were broken around it, probably having fallen from the hutch Callie kept in the corner. The window blinds on the glass paned door that led out to the backyard were askew and one of the drawers underneath the bar had been pulled completely out of it's sliders and utensils were spread everywhere. But what his attention honed in on was the blood. There was a large puddle of it in front of the refridgerator and it had smeared all over the floor, like there had been a struggle and whoever it had come from had ended up rolling around in it with someone. It was the blood that had caused John to stop dead and lose all ability to think clearly. Callie wasn't here and, wherever she was, it seemed as if she was seriously hurt. He quickly turned to head back for the phone extension in the livingroom, not wanting to disturb anything in the kitchen by walking over it, and saw that both Jeff and Punk were right behind him peering over his shoulder. Both men had stunned looks on their faces that said they had a pretty good idea that something serious had happened but they weren't going to allow themselves to imagine what. "Jeff, call the hospitals! There's a phone book in here." John said immediately. Something about seeing the other men's faces snapped him out of his shock and suddenly he was in emergency mode.

"The hospitals?"

"Just to make sure. She might have cut herself or something and gone there..." The look on Jeff's face told him that he didn't believe that any more than John did but there was still hope. "I'm going to call the police."

Punk still stood in the doorway of the kitchen, staring down into the destruction, seeing the shadow of his reflection in the blood clotting on the tile. Slowly, seemingly without even thinking about it, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Randy's number.

...

The room was dark. That much she was grateful for. The pounding in her head made it too painful to move at all and she couldn't imagine what it would feel like if she could see any kind of light making it's way through her closed lids. Her entire body was aching and even just laying there not moving the pain was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes. After a few moments she sdared to slowly open her eyes and she had been right, the room was dark but she could make out shadows around the room. It didn't look like furniture of any kind but more like stacks of things piled haphazardly around the large space. Well, she assumed it was large. It was too dim to be able to see where any of the walls were except the one she was laying next to. Where was she?

Suddenly it all started to come back to her. Her fight with John and Dave, the whiskey and the man in her house. There was a moment that she wasn't able to remember and thought that she had probably been unconscious at the time. Apparently she had been expected to stay unconscious for a while because when she woke up and started to fight as he was pulling her out of the house she had almost gotten the best of him for a minute, he had seemed so shocked. There had been glass breaking and things overturning as she tried to escape. Eventually her head injury had slowed her down, though, and he had easily overtaken her again.

Now, as she peered at her surroundings she couldn't help but wonder why this had happened. What could she have possibly done to anger him and cause this? She didn't even know how long she'd been there. Callie dared to try to sit up, using the wall next to her for support, and immediately regretted it. Every part of her body screamed at her and her head swam. For a few moments, she was pretty sure she was going to throw up everywhere. It crossed her mind that between the nausea and dizziness she probably had a concussion but, given the circumstances, that was the least of her worries at the moment. Calie managed to push herself up on her hands and lean against the wall, noting that it felt like concrete or cinder blocks. Something cold and exceptionally hard. As she moved her legs, slowly testing their strength and knowing she'd never be able to stand up in her condition, she heard a rattling sound. Like metal scraping against something. Immediately she stopped moving and strained her ears to hear for it again. It sounded close.. Really close. She listened as hard as she could but the only sound that came out of the darkness was the pounding of her own heart. She gave up and resumed trying to stretch out when she heard the sound again, and this time she felt something move by her ankle. Callie inwardly panicked, hoping against hope that she was wrong about this. Slowly reaching down her leg, gently probing around her right foot and ankle she felt the metal and her fears were confirmed. A thick chain had ben wrapped around her ankle and was probably anchored somewhere in a wall or on the floor to keep her from getting away. With no light in the room to see by she had no idea how long it was or where it came from but it was there all the same. She was trapped. Until she was better able to move around and follow the length of the chain she would have no idea how much it would limit her. Gasping for breath out of pain and fear, Callie leaned back against the wall and let the tears fall. Despair overtook any hope she might have been able to cling to. She had no idea where she was, she was hurt and all she wanted was to be at home with John and they guys. John. Would he even look for her when they realized she wasn't at home? Would he just think that she had gotten angry and left? No, that couldn't happen. No matter how angry she was he would know that she would never skip out on her duties at Wrestlemania. Wouldn't he? She didn't have her cell phone with her and the battery would probably be dead anyway. Actually, she was missing a few things that she remembered having before. Like her pajama pants and all of her jewelry. Callie had a silver ring she wore on the middle finger of her right hand and she never took it off for any reason. All of the jewelry from her body piercings were missing as well. What the hell was going on?

Callie didn't have time to ponder the oddness of the missing items long. Her head jerked up at a noise that came out of the distance. It echoed like a door closing at the end of a long empty hallway. Footsteps came towards her and Callie had to squint back the pain her head when a lightbulb suddenly blazed to life overhead. She fell back against the wall and brought her arm up to try to block out some of the light. Once she could open her eyes a little wider she saw him again. His dark shadow looming over her, causing her to shrink back as far as she could. It was a futile attempt. The chain attached to her leg would keep her from getting away from him even if she could.

"So, you've finally decided to join the land of the living, have you, Love?" God, how she hated that accent. "Well, now that you're awake, it's time I get a little reward for all of my efforts..." He took a few steps towards her and, as he came more into the light, Callie saw that he was undoing the clasp on his belt and the sudden realization of what was about to happen to her washed through all of her senses. As he closed the distance between them he reached down and grabbed a fistfull of her long red hair, jerking her up and slamming her back up against the cold wall and proceeded to press his hulking body up against hers.

"No!" She screamed and tried her hardest to break free of his grasp knowing she was took weak to fight him successfully.

"No point in trying, Love. No one can hear you here." He continued to paw at her body, reaching down to push down her boyshorts and jerk her head back savagely by her hair.

"No! You can't do this...you have to let me go! No, Wade, No!"

**So the mystery is out but that doesn't mean the drama is over, by any means. What does Wade have planned for Wrestlemania and how does it involve Callie? Well, you're just going to have to wait and find out!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Okay, so I know I haven't updated in WAY too long. There's really no excuse for that. I've been debating on whether or not to add a few other elements to this story and since I've finally made up my mind I could finally get something to post. It's going to go in a slightly different direction than what I had originally planned but I'm pretty sure it's going to be well worth it in the end. Hope you enjoy. This chapter isn't very long but there's a lot of info in it and a few more questions for you to wonder about as well. ;)**

Chapter 11

Randy wasn't sure that any of them were really up for this but apparently they didn't have a choice. Wrestlemania was the biggest show of the year and even with the current situation there was no way any of them would be able to get out of it. Especially since he, John and Punk were all in some very heavily publicized matches. Hell, John was going up against Wade Barrett for the title again and there was no way in hell Vince was going to let him out of it, even with his little sister missing. It had been three days since he'd received the call from Phil that something had gone down at Callie's and he'd seen the situation himself as he pulled up to her house an hour later to see all of the cops cars. It was obvious to everyone that she hadn't destroyed the kitchen herself and later on the cops had found footprints outside in the bushes around the back door, but no fingerprints were found except for those of the people who were staying with her. The police had stuck around most of the night asking a million questions and, after getting few answers, asking a million more. It had been frustrating for all involved and more than once they had had to keep John from completely losing it and beating the hell out of someone. The last thing they needed was for him to start throwing punches at cops.

Eventually things had slightly settled down and, not being able to stay in the house over night, John, Jeff and Punk had all checked into a hotel not far from the stadium. The police were still considering Callie's housea crime scene and in case they had missed any clues had spent the past few days going over it with a fine toothed comb. Randy figured that was even harder on John than anyone. Not only was Callie missing but he couldn't even have anything of hers around him to at least get a sense that she was coming back. Randy had also given the police the note they'd found taped to his hotel room door that day. He was hoping that they might be able to get a fingerprint or something from it and had spent the past three days kicking himself in the ass for not making John tell someone about it sooner. He should have gone behind Cena's back and told anyway but he hadn't wanted to scare Callie anymore than necessary. That thought seemed futile now. How scared was she when she had disappeared from the house, probably kidnapped? Hell, how scared was she now?

Today marked the beginning of the three day Axxess event before Wrestlemania and everyone had their doubts that the guys involved would be able to perform to their usual standards. In fact, ever since that night, the general mood of everyone had taken a turn. It was more than just those that had been really close to Cal and John, just about everyone liked her and when the news hit the locker rooms the next day shock spread over everyone in the company. Unfortunately though, the show had to go on and Vince wasted no time in gathering up everything he could that Callie had been working on for the show and handing the job off to Andrew who had done a lot of the scenery for their shows before. He hadn't wanted to it but someone had to be there to make sure everything was set up, both on stage and for all of their promos behind the scenes. VInce had been thankful for Callie's tendency to be obsessive compulsive in her list and diagram making because she'd had everything set up in a notebook with maps of every scene filed away with lists of all props involved. All Andrew had to do was look at a diagram and set it up so hopefully he couldn't screw it up too bad.

Randy looked down at his phone once more before shaking his head and heading out of his hotel room. He had texted John almost an hour earlier and still hadn't gotten a response. It wasn't surprising but aggravating, none the less. As expected, John was taking the situation harder than anyone. He barely spoke anymore and really just seemed spaced out all of the time. Off in his own little world. He rarely texted anyone back and never picked up his phone anymore. Randy had gotten so worried about him that he'd called John's brothers but he wouldn't pick up the phone for them either. No one could blame him though. Punk had little sisters of his own and over the past year Callie had become one of them. In fact, it seemed most of the locker room thought of her that way so it was easy for them to not take John's silence personally. Heading towards the elevators Randy ran into Kofi coming out of his own room and managed a small smile as the smaller man spotted him.

"Hey, man, any word yet?"

Randy shook his head. "Not yet. Cops really haven't found anything yet and there's been no word from her."

Kofi's eyes, which had held some hope a minute ago, dimmed slightly. "Yeah, that's what they said when we called the station this morning. We were just hoping there was something they weren't telling us because we weren't family." He noticed the look of confusion on Randy's face and proceeded to explain. "Some of us have kind of been hounding the cops. We call everyday, hoping they've found a lead or something they're following up on but no luck. Thought maybe that John would have found something out by now and told you."

"No such luck." Randy shook his head slightly and decided to change the subject. "You ready for some meet and greets today? I hear we have record crowds at Axxess this year."

"Yeah, well, don't we every year? And yeah, I'm sorry to say it'll be a nice distraction at least." The two entered the elevator together and pushed the button for the lobby. "I mean, it feels mean to say I'd like to get my mind off this whole situation but..." Kofi's voice trailed off, not knowing exactly how to say it without seeming unsensitive.

"No, I know what you mean. I think getting out there with the fans and all will help some. I felt bad thinking it too, but it'll be nice to pretend everything is normal for a while."

When they exited the elevator into the lobby they didn't have time to finish their conversation because of the squeals and screams emanating from around them. Apparently some of the fans had managed to get reservations in their same hotel before it had been completely booked and decided to take advantage of the surprise of two of their favorite wrestlers showing up unexpectedly. Both men gave each other a knowing look and stepped out into the chaos.

...

All she could feel was cold. The floor was cold, the room was cold, the blood that was covering her was cold. She didn't think she would ever be warm again and that suited her just fine. The cold was numbing and as long as she didn't move, she couldn't feel any of the pain that had been wracking her body for the past...what was it? Hours? Days? Callie couldn't tell. She'd never worn a watch and, even if she had, Wade had taken all of her jewelry anyway. Wherever he was keeping her, there were no windows to see daylight either. Just that one dim bulb overhead. By the meager light she'd been able to see many flourescent lights mounted into the ceiling but none of them were turned on. If they even worked, she didn't know but they had looked to be in fairly good condition. Not that she was any expert. After all she had been through her eyesight wasn't what it used to be. Between all of the dried blood, swelling and bruises, she could barely see well enough to make out anything as far away as the ceiling. Soon after her first encounter with Barrett after she'd woken up here she'd looked around at her surroundings as far as her chain would let her. There were boxes stacked up against walls and sheets covering various items of equipment but none of it Callie recognized. There were a few things around that she hadn't looked into yet but they werent really high on her priority list anymore. Even if she found something that would give her a clue to where she was, she wouldn't be able to escape with her leg bound like it was.

And the torture hadn't stopped either. Wade was coming and going as he pleased, sometimes only to make sure she was still alive and hadn't escaped, sometimes to satisfy himself and, even more often, to take out all of his anger on her. That's what she was waiting for as she laid on the floor now. She had seen him earlier and, yet again, he had taken what he wanted and left. Callie hadn't even bothered to try to piece together what litle clothing she had and put it on. It just hadn't been worth wasting the energy. Her shirt was torn beyond recognition anyway.

Her vision was blurring in and out as she lay on her back, staring up into the light above and wished he'd just kill her already. She had lost almost all hope of ever getting out of here alive anyway and it would be a much welcomed end to all of this pain. Cal had long ago cried all of the tears that she could muster and now, just as her body was, her emotions were numb. She would never see John again. Or Jeff, or Punk, or Randy. She wouldn't hang around back in the locker room with the guys or wreak havoc in catering. Most of all she missed her little house. The one John had bought for her so long ago. It was over and deep down she had accepted that. There was still some small hope her brother or someone else would find her but she wasn't counting on it. No one had so far and she felt like she'd been there forever. Groaning a little, she slowly rolled over onto her side and allowed herself to slip, once again, into merciful unconsciousness.

...

It was amazing how many different types of people were huge fans on the WWE. The Axxess event was in full swing and it was, by far, the most diverse group of people you would ever see in one place together. Young, old, bikers, goths, preps, lawyers, doctors, burger flippers. Americans, Europeans, Asians, Indians. If America is the melting pot, then WWE events are the platter on which it is served. Usually Punk would be enjoying every minute of it but understandably, he was distracted. Through the past few days he had been trying like mad to be supportive of John and take care of some of the things that John hadn't been up to doing but it was starting to weigh on him. So many times he'd come close to breaking down himself and had had to sneak off to be alone and gather his thoughts. It was worse that he couldn't come out and say what had been on his mind this whole time. If anyone knew he'd probably get his ass kicked by more than just John. The secret had been weighing on him for a while but now, with Callie missing, he felt it even more and those words that had been left unsaid threatened to break him.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

This was an absolute blast! Of course, he'd been to Wrestlemania events before but this time he was having the time of his life. Of course, being a heel he didn't have too many fans knocking each other down to get his autograph but being the resident Brit on RAW he had his fair share of British fans rooting for him. Wade was loving every minute of it. Even more so because he knew when he left here, he had someone else waiting for him. It was so liberating knowing he had an outlet to get his aggression out on. Although he had had to rein himself in on occassion. He couldn't risk killing her just yet or else it would screw up everything he had planned for Wrestlemania. It was obvious to him she'd already lost a lot of blood and probably had some broken bones already but no worries. He'd take it a little easier on her for the next couple of days to make sure she was ready for her world wide debut. Too bad it would be her last. Wade smiled to himself as he handed the autographed magazine back to the smiling woman and contemplated trying to get her back to the hotel to entertain him for the night but decided against it. He had something much better waiting for him just a mile away.

...

The convention center had been booming since eight that morning and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. The turnout was yet another record breaker for the WWE and it delighted the Chairman himself, but he could feel the dark cloud over the atmosphere, even if the fans who had come couldn't. He had to admit, his employees had gone above and beyond when it came to putting aside this week's emergency and getting down to the business of putting on smiling faces for their fans but he saw their worry all the same. Every time he saw one of them heading to the bathroom or sitting alone with a bottle of water for a few minutes he could see it in their eyes. They were all worried, as he was himself, and Vince wondered how it would affect their performances on the grandest stage of them all. Most of them he didn't worry too much about. They were friend with Callie but weren't actually close. Jeff didn't have a Wrestlemania match either but his brother, Matt, did and Jeff was only set to come out at the top of the ramp as a distraction and Matt wasn't nearly as close to her as Jeff was. There shouldn't be any problems there. Phil might be a problem though. If Jeff had been her best friend then Phil was definitely second in the ranks and he seemed to be taking her disappearance pretty hard. Granted, he'd been running interference between John and everyone else, which Vince thought was admirable, he had his moments as well and he didn't need anyone getting hurt during a match because they were distracted. John was definitely a problem but he kept insisting he'd be able to perform because Callie would have insisted on it. Vince had his doubts but had worked with Cena long enough to keep the faith in him. That only left Dave. Batista wasn't scheduled to wrestle at all at Wrestlemania and had even already made plans to leave the company but Vince had a feeling he would show up anyway. Dave had been on a rampage ever since he'd heard about the incident at her house and no one knew how to tame him. The only other thought Vince could come up with was to ban him from the Axxess event and keep some extra security around backstage during the show. It was amazing the difference in the two men in Callie's life; they had become polar opposites. John had managed to pull himself together long enough to put on his character for the fans but backstage he was silent and withdrawn. Dave was suspicious of everyone and likely to snap at the smallest things. It wasn't just the wrestlers and emplyees he was eyeing either. Vince hadn't been able to allow him at the three day event because he was even starting to look at the fans in a different light, constantly wondering at each person he saw if they had been the one to harm her. In reality, there was no telling who had done this and there were so few clues that it wasn't looking like they were going to find out anytime soon.

...

Punk couldn't stand it anymore. Even though he was supposed to be working the room and hanging out with fans he just didnt have it in him anymore. He'd been doing this all day, even skipping lunch for some extra photo ops and he just needed some space to clear his head again. The sudden knock on the door caused him to jump slightly before the door opened a little.

"Mind if I come in?"

"Sure, free country Orton." Punk went back to staring into the water bottle he had been holding in his hands.

Randy sat down in the metal chair a few feet from the other man and studied him for a minute before speaking. "I saw you leave and come in here. You okay?"

Punk gave a dirisive snort, never looking away from the bottle. "Oh yeah, just peachy. In fact, I'm thinking about throwing a damn party later. You know, invite some hotties and hit up the hotel pool, maybe trash some rooms, get laid."

"Sarcasm isn't going to make you feel better, you know."

"Orton, nothing is going to make me feel better right now. I don't see how you all do it."

"Do it?"

"Do this, all of this," Punk waved his arm towards the door leading back out into the convention center. "Why the hell are we just sitting here with our thumbs up our asses acting like nothing in wrong when Callie is who knows where? She's obviously hurt, lord knows she's scared and we're hanging out with fans? What the hell is this?"

Randy winced a little as Punk's voice raised, hoping no one outside would be able to hear it but understood how he was feeling at that moment. He felt the same way himself. "What are we supposed to do Phil? Cancel the show and start going door to door to search every house in the city? We can't do that," he countered, ignoring the glaring look that was being thrown his way. "The cops are looking for her. There's nothing we can do. They'll find her eventually."

"Yeah, it's that 'eventually' part that gets me. Hell, she might be beyond our help already."

Randy noticed that he had avoided actually saying the word dead. All of them had and over the past few days it was amazing how many different ways people have been able to come up with to get around actually saying that one word. Almost like, if they said it, it would make it real. The world's scariest jinx.

"We can't afford to think like that, Phil." Randy reached over and placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. "We have to keep the faith that she's alive and she'll come home." He let out a large sigh and stood up. "Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Take your time."

As the door shut behind Orton, Punk was slightly dumbfounded. The two had never been close even though they were often in the vicinity of each other either through work or Callie and Randy's sudden concern for his well-being had taken him offguard. It seemed things were going like that lately though.

Punk sat back and downed the last of his water before tossing the bottle aside and standing up to rejoin everyone, stopping just before opening the door and leaning his head on it. Everyone out there knew he and Cal were friends. They all knew he was upset. What they didn't know was that it wasn't for the reasons that they thought.

...

Later that night, after all the fans had gone and his coworkers were packing up their belongings, Wade headed out of the convention center and threw his bag into the trunk of his rental. He had a date with a red haired beauty and he wasn't going to be late...not like she was going anywhere. He smiled to himself at the thought before speeding out of the parking lot.


	14. Chapter 13

**Short chapter this time but even more new drama. I really didn't plan on making John's brothers into assholes but whatever works right? In this chapter it's only 2 days until Wrestlemania so we're getting close! There are still going to be a couple more chapters until the big show but it won't be long! I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to happen to Wade afterwards so any suggestions are welcome. I can either kill him off or leave him open for a sequel by having him either in jail or escaping justice. It's still up in the air.**

Chapter 13

John wasn't sure what was worse, not having any information about Callie or getting bad news. They were already two days into the Axxess event and he was mentally worn out. Normally he loved the interaction with everyone and getting to know his fan base better but having to plaster a smile on his face and push his current worries to the back of his mind every moment he was with them was wearing him out. Not to mention everyone under the sun was up his ass about it, constantly calling or texting, always worried about him. It seemed wrong to him that their focus had turned to him. Everyone should be more worried about Cal and where she was at, how she was doing. It was understandable but still wrong in his eyes. The sound of his cell phone tore his mind from his thoughts and his eyes from the television set he wasn't really watching anyway. Checking the screen he saw it was his brother, Dan, yet again. Sighing heavily, he hit the button to answer the call. He couldn't avoid them all forever.

"Yeah," his voice gave away no emotion.

"John! Hey, we've been trying to get a hold of you for days!"

"Yeah, you know, before Wrestlemania it's always busy as hell." It was a shit excuse and they both knew it. Dan sighed on the other end of the line, knowing John was going to try like hell to avoid the conversation they both knew was coming.

"John, don't give me that. I know it's always busy this time of year, which is why we usually leave you be for a week or two but you know that's not the reason you've been avoiding us."

"Dan, why are calling?" A hint of annoyance entered John's tone and his brother knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"You know why I'm calling Bro. You can't keep doing this."

"And just what is it that everyone thinks I'm doing?"

"You're killing yourself, man. When was the last time you slept? When did you eat last? And you can't avoid everyone forever. We're worried about you."

"Which is WHY I've been avoiding everyone." John immediately regretted answering this call. He knew this was going to happen and was even less up for it than he thought. "Why is everyone up my ass when they should be worried about Callie?"

"John, we ARE worried about Callie but, unfortunately, there's nothing we can do for her right now. You, on the other hand, are here right now and you've never been like this. It's almost scary. I mean, think about it, how are you going to feel if they do find her and you're stuck in some hospital with an IV in your arm because you weren't taking care of yourself? And cutting everyone off? Mentally, that can't be good for you either. You need to talk about this. Who knows? It might make you feel at least a little better."

"Daniel, NOTHING but Callie coming home is going to make me feel any better. I just want her home and all of this over with."

"Just think back John. You lived your life without her around every second of the day once before didn't you?"

At that John's eyes flared with anger and he stood from his place on the hotel couch, his voice slightly raising in the dark room. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

On the other end of the line, John could tell that his brother was beginning to become annoyed and frustrated. "We just don't see how it ever got this far, that's all. We know you wanted to meet the sister you never knew but look at the situation from our point of view. We barely even knew her and you automatically take her in and spend just about every second with her. I'm not saying we're not all worried too but at least we can all still function throughout the day."

"And by 'we' you mean the other guys too." It wasn't a question.

"We're your brothers, John, and we were kind of happy to have another sibling too but there's no point in uprooting our entire lives for it."

John was practically yelling now, the veins in his necks standing out from the strain of keeping himself from punching holes in the wall. "Fuck you Dan! Just because all of you didn't see the point in getting close to her doesn't mean I regret one second of it! She has done nothing but make my life better and, as a matter of fact, I feel sorry for the rest of you because you never cared enough to get to know how amazing she is. DON'T call me again!"

John hit the end button and threw his phone across the room, hearing it clatter somewhere on the other side of the bed. How dare he? How dare ANY of his family try to tell him that he'd made a mistake and should never have gotten as close as he had. She was his one and only little sister and, as far as John was concerned, had deserved much better than fate had dealt her. Stopping himself from ripping everything in the room to shreds he sat down on the edge of the bed, burying his face in his hands. He didn't know how much time passed but it seemed like an eternity before he finally came to the decision he knew was best. Taking a deep breath, he fished his phone out from the other side of the bed, mentally thanking whoever invented gorilla glass for saving his screen from being broken, and found Randy's name in his contact list. It only rang twice before he heard a sleepy voice on the other end.

"Ello?"

"Hey, Randy, it's John."

"John! Man, what's up? Everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's cool. No news yet." John could almost see Randy's face fall through the phone. "It's just..."

"What? What's on your mind champ?"

"I was wondering if you could come hang out. You know...talk? I think I need to."

"Of course. Gimme a minute, I'll be over. I'm just down the hall."

As the two hung up, Randy was beyond ecstatic. He knew talking about this situation wasn't something that high up on Cena's list of things he wanted to do but finally realizing that he should probably get some things off of his chest was a step in the right direction. Orton grabbed the shirt he'd thrown on the dresser just a few hours before, slid his room key into the pocket in his pajama pants and padded down the hallway, determined to do whatever it took to try and snap his best friend out his funk.

...

Neither John nor Randy knew that at that same moment Wade was sitting down in the dimly lit room staring right at Callie through slitted eyes. It was taking everything he had to control himself this night. She was on the edge and if he pushed even a little bit there was a good chance she was going to topple right over. He couldn't risk that. Couldn't risk any more injury or blood loss this night. He needed her alive for her appearance at Wrestlemania. In her unconsciousness he'd taken some water and scrubbed the blood and dust from her body, rinsed out her hair. Never once did she move or make a sound during the entire process which didn't bode well for the plans that he had laid out. He needed her somewhat alert for big debut and if she didn't rest up then that wouldn't happen. So he sat down on some random piece of equipment and just looked at her, through her. Really he was imagining how things would go at the big show two days from now. As a small grin began to appear at the corners of his lips he came up with a few last minute preparations to add to his list. He slowly stood and turned off the only light bulb before quietly closing the door behind him, leaving her in total darkness.


	15. Chapter 14

**Just have to say, anyone who hadn't checked out WWE's channel on youtube and hasn't watched Santino's Foreign Exchange is missing out on some funny stuff! And once again, the places here like Urban's are real in Arlington (it's over on cooper street) and Will (a friend of mine) actually works there. In fact we're headed up there to see him tomorrow! **

Chapter 14

"Hey, you okay?"

Jeff was pulled from his thoughts and looked up. He wasn't expecting to see his brother standing beside the trunk he had been sitting on for the last few minutes. Last he heard Matt was heading out to grab something to eat with a couple of the other guys and divas.

"Uh, yeah, just thinking."

"Oh yeah?" Matt jumped up onto the trunk to sit beside his brother. "What about? Looked like you were thinking pretty hard."

"Well, I dunno." Jeff seemed hesitant but decided if he couldn't talk to his own brother about it, then who could he? "I was out with some of the fans earlier today just hanging out at the event. Taking pictures and that kind of stuff. Answering questions. I was telling this little kid, lil dude couldn't have been more than seven or eight, about the pranks we pull backstage sometimes and he started talkin bout some of the ones he played on his siblings. Well, I couldn't help thinking to myself 'man, Callie would love to b e hearing this right now'. He even gave me some ideas I hadn't tried out yet. But she's not here for me to scare the crap out of now. It's just...sad."

Matt patted his brother on the shoulder reassuringly. "They're going to find her, man. You've gotta keep believing that."

"I know, and I keep trying but you weren't there Matt. You didn't see that kitchen. It was all messed up and there was blood on the floor...and it's been DAYS man. Days. What if that turns into weeks? Or years? What then?"

Matt let out a sigh and knew he wouldn't be able to make his brother feel better by giving him false promises but they'd spent enough time together growing up that he knew the best angle to take on the subject. "I think the best way to deal with it is the best way that you know how."

"What?" Jeff looked up from his hands at his brother, figuring he'd finally lost his mind. "That makes no sense. How is that?"

"It's different for everyone I guess. But we all have that one thing that always makes us happy, that can always let us zone out and leave your trouble somewhere else, even if it is only for a few minutes. Find that thing and do it."

"Well," Jeff began but was immediately cut off.

"It doesn't matter what it is, Jeff. And don't feel guilty about it either. For your own sanity, you need to have something to do to take your mind off of it, at least for a little while." With that, Matt jumped down off of the trunk and left Jeff to ponder what he'd just been told.

Jeff didn't see his brother leave, he was too deep into his thoughts to notice. Usually Jeff's mind was a swirling vortex of wrestling moves, deep thoughts, art projects and the everyday demons of his life. It was one of the times in his life where ADD actually came in handy, quickly processing and filing away each thought in it's own specially labeled folder in his mind. But for the past few days the one and only thought in his mind, Callie, had been relentless in it's pursuit of his sanity. He had skipped meals, lost countless hours of sleep and it was beginning to show. Looking in the mirror this morning he'd noted the bags under his eyes were large enough to even rival the ones that were usually hanging out underneath Punk's own eyes. Maybe Matt was right. Maybe he did need to find an outlet. Surely, Callie couldn't fault him for doing what he could to not go insane, right? More minutes passed before Jeff came to an internal decision, jumping off the trunk and heading down the arena hallway while pulling his phone out of his pocket. After searching through his contacts and clicking on the name he was looking for Jeff heard the familiar voice answer on the other end.

"Hey, wassup?"

"Hey Shannon, I need a favor..."

...

"So how's everybody doing tonight?" John was met with screams and cheers as he pulled the microphone away from his lips and smiled out at the fans. His talk with Randy had gone better than he had expected. It wasn't exactly a moment out of a lifetime movie where the big strong man cries and shows how sensitive he really is (which would probably have made them both feel more awkward anyway) but he felt like a small weight had been lifted from him. He'd managed to finally voice a lot of his fears and thoughts and had almost been suprised to hear than he wasn't the only one. All of the locker room was worried and constantly wondering what had happened to Callie and more than a few had already confessed to feeling guilty about getting on with their lives in the wake of the current situation. But the show must go on, as they say, and somehow they were all getting through it. After his talk with Randy, which had lasted early into the new morning, John had fallen into the most dreamless sleep he'd had since she had disappeared. He was still tired when his alarm woke him up just a few short hours later but he did feel a little better. Better able to get through the day.

After all of the screams and cheers began to die down, John continued his introductions of the other wrestlers onstage for the question and answer session, Punk, Kofi, Truth, Big Show and Triple H along with Vickie Guerrero. They were all supposed to be answering questions by the fans for the next couple of hours and telling some stories of their experiences on the road. For the first time in a while, John Cena held his head up, looked his fans right in the eye and genuinely smiled.

...

They say that one of the quickest ways to drive a man insane is put him in a room with no mental stimulation and nothing to do, turn out all of the lights and, most importantly, removed any sense of time he might have had. With no way to measure the passage of time, minutes, hours, days, the mind turns to other means of occupying itself, usually reverting inward and opening up thoughts and memories either long forgotten or purposely hidden away for some reason or another. Callie thought she had read this is a ook or magazine somewhere. Or maybe she saw it in a movie? She couldn't remember, but she did remember those words and now she finally understood them. Maybe the person who wrote that should have added in torture and impending doom for a little added spice. Either way, she completely knew now how just taking away that one small perception such as a sense of time could drive someone to their limits. She hadn't seen Wade in quite a while now. Much longer than all of the other times he'd been away and she wasn't complaining about it seeing as how it gave her some time to rest and sleep, but it did worry her. The thoughts had flowed through her mind for the past few hours now and she had easily come up with the thought that if Wade, for some reason, got bored of his little game or became incapacitated in another way, no one knew where she was. She didn't even know where she was. She was chained to floor and if he didn't come back she would surely die here. Callie had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to die anyway, but she was been counting on it coming at the hands of Wade himself. Perhaps she would lose consciousness during a beating or while Wade was pleasing himself. Maybe he'd finally hit her a little too hard that one time and it would all be over. But if he just never came back, she would be left here to either bleed to death or starve, both options obviously a slow and painful way to go. Suddenly Callie realized that there were worse things than her current situation...there were the alternatives.

...

Jeff took a deep breath as he opened the shop door and walked through it. Shannon had been really helpful when Jeff had called and had immediately found exactly what was needed. He'd even made a few calls ahead to let them know that Jeff was on his way and what he was looking for.

Looking up from behind the reception desk was a slightly short man who looked to be a mix between mexican and asian. Seeing Jeff enter the building, he smiled and introduced himself after putting down his pencils and standing from the small desk. "Hey, Mr. Hardy. My name is Will. Shannon said you'd be on your way."

Jeff shook his hands and returned the smile. "Will, call me Jeff. And yeah, normally I'd go see Shannon but we're a long way from there. He said you two had worked together before and this was the best shop to be at here in Arlington."

"We do our best here at Urban's. So you're totally set on this particular design?" Will pulled a sheet of paper out of his fax machine, Shannon having once again worked his magic. "And you want it incorporated with what's already there?" Jeff nodded at both started."

Jeff took a seat in the mostly red and black waiting room and studied the pictures painted onto the wall while he awaited his turn in the chair.

...

Punk managed a quick peek at his watch and silently thanked whoever was up there that there were only fifteen minutes left of his Q and A session. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and was planning on catching a few winks in a spare room during his lunch break. Answering all of the fans inquiries, which usually was a great experience for him, was turning into a long and tedious task. He did notice that John seemed a little more pert this morning but the sadness still laid deep in his eyes. Punk would take what he could get though. As long as John was doing at least a little better then the rest of them could lay off of him for a while and tend to their own needs. They all had to admit, even though they liked to think that they were all being supportive and helpful by making it as easy on John as possible, there was always this tension among the ranks when Cena was in the room.

Michael Cole spoke into the microphone from the side of the stage, playing his part of host for this smaller event and pointed to one more fan to ask his question of the superstars. A short man with a white t-shirt that barely covered his sagging belly stood up and took the mic that was offered by the ushers. "Umm, yeah, my question is for Cena."

"Okay, shoot." John answered, waiting patiently for the man to present his question.

"Yeah, uh, when you were gonna tell ev'ry one else bout your sister?"

Time stopped. Or, at least, it seemed to. The rest of the fans looked at him intently, obviously having no clue as to what this man was referring to but John's skin went to white he could have had a contest with Sheamus about who could glow brighter in the dark. All of the blood drained from his face and his palm immediately began to sweat. He glanced sideways at his coworkers and saw that they were equally shocked. No one had been told about Callie's disappearance except those in the company and the local police so far. As far as they knew, no one had leaked to the news station and the cops were trying to keep it as quiet as possible to avoid security issues at Wrestlemania. But this man knew because this man asked. Either there was a mole who was leaking information about the events or this man knew more than he was letting on before.


	16. Chapter 15

**Yay! Saw my good friend Will up at Urban's yesterday and finally got my awesome Donnie Darko design done! I'll change my profile pic to it later. Also, we got floor seats to the Raw Supershow here in Dallas! So excited! We're right behind the announcer's table so on Monday, August 13th, watch for me and the bestie behind the announcers. We'll be holding up the poster that says Urban's! (not too sure what all's gonna go on it; gonna take a poster board up to Will in 2 weeks and have him work his artistic magic) Also I just set up a facebook page so I can post pics of places in my stories, people (other than wrestlers) that I base characters off of and probably just some random funny stuff. I'll be working on adding pics and info on that page tonight but it's already up. Hope you guys will go see it and add it! **** ?ref=tn_tnmn**

Chapter 15

As the sound of the gun stopped once again, Jeff looked down to admire Will's handiwork. The birds were fitting perfectly into the branches already there and Jeff, for the first time in a week, was excited. It was looking great yet inconspicuous at the same time. Will sprayed some solution onto a new set of paper towels and wiped away the ink that had gathered before inspecting his lines and turning the gun on again and resuming his outlines. As the familiar buzzing filled the small cubicle once again, Jeff leaned his head back in the chair and reveled in the feeling of the needle once again.

...

John was dumbfounded. He had absolutely no clue what to say in that moment. At first thought he looked around at the faces of all of the fans that were standing around the man. It was obvious that they had no clue what this man was talking about. His second thought was to look around at the faces of the others on stage with him. To his surprise, all of their eyes were trained on him. It took a moment but he finally saw that they weren't waiting to see his answer but how he was reacting to it. He was saved when Vince himself stepped in front of the crowd and took the mic from Cena. "I'm sorry but there will be no questions about the families of our wrestlers. Their lives are their own and I'm sure if they had wanted to be in the spotlight they would do so." With that, Vince handed the mic over to his son-in-law Paul and took his old position again on the side of the crowd.

Paul snapped out of his moment of confusion and lifted the mic to his lips. "Well, we'll have one more question..."

...

Vince, after resuming is position, sent a nod to his head of security a few feet away and flicked his eyes towards the heavy-set man that had asked bout Callie. Steven got the hint and left the room long enough to summon his employees by walkie-talkie, then re-entered the room and kept his eyes trained on the man until his backup could arrive.

...

"Alright man, you're all done." Will said as he sprayed the last set of paper towels and wiped off Jeff's arm and applied more ointment before scooting his stool back and taking the needles out of his gun and adding them to the syringe box mounted at his station. Jeff hopped up from the chair and walked over the full length mirror in the shop, turning to admire the artwork.

"Man, it's awesome. And it ties in great with the roots already there." Jeff figured since most people took his tattoo for branches anyway he'd play on it. Buried in the tangle of lines were the black silhouettes of two birds, done in a greywash, to symbolize both Callie and himself. He thought it fitting as she had always reminded him of a small bird, flitting this way and that, dodging among the legs and arms of big wrestlers backstage. Jeff turned and gave Will what Callie would have called the "man hug" and thanked him once again. "You don't know what this means to me, man. Really appreciate it on such short notice."

"Anytime. No charge either."

"Naw man, I gotta pay you something."

Will help up his hand to quiet Jeff. "Dont worry about it. I owe Shannon a favor and I've been a lifelong fan. Just lemme brag to all my friends I tattooed the one of the Hardy brothers and we're even."

Jeff gave a small laugh, his first in what seemed like forever, and agreed. After a few more minutes of talking and taking a few pictures together, Jeff knew he had to take his leave. He was scheduled for a radio interview that evening and he wanted to make sure he wasn't late. As he walked out of the shop door into the bright sunlight and stifling Texas heat he took a deep breath and looked up into the sky. Someone had told him once that even in the middle of a city, the skies in Texas always looked bigger than anywhere else. He couldn't believe they'd been here for so long already and he was just now noticing. As he walked to his rental car, Jeff just prayed that Callie wasn't up there looking down in him just yet.

...

Backstage, John was still having trouble putting two and two together. Did that man really just talk about his sister? He just had to be talking about her disappearance. The news of his "long lost baby sister" had made headlines a year ago when she first became a regular backstage on RAW and had accompanied him to the ring during his title match against Jericho. It had been a hefty decision as Stephanie, who had taken over as head of creative, wanted to add her into a story line with little to training in the ring. Ultimately the final decision had been Callie's and John was surprised when she agreed. At first he had been reluctant to let her, not wanting her to agree to this just to try to please him as her new brother. He'd quickly learned, though, that she had loved the idea. Not for fame or anything, just to try something new. It was his first inclination that she was coming out of her shell and was slowly leaving behind her quiet, mousy persona.

But there was no way this fan had just now gotten that news so he HAD to be talking about what had happened to her a few days ago. The problem was that John couldn't figure out what his angle was. Was he in on it? If so then why would be bring it up? Obviously, if he knew about it he would have noticed the lack of media coverage about the situation wouldn't he? John sat down on the couch in the back room and let his face fall into his hands.

As soon as the Q and A session was over, the security team had waited until said man was leaving before, as discreetly as possible, pulling him from the crowd and holding him in his own back room until the local police unit that was handling Callie's cae could arrive. They were in there questioning him now and everyone who had heard his question was anxious at what they would find out, if anything. He hadn't been cuffed or taken into official custody but he had heard from Vince that if they couldn't get a reasonable explaination out of him he would be taken into the station and held for 24 hours until he could come up with something believable. Seeing as how a hundred clueless people and the six other wrestlers onstage plus Vince and numerous camera crews and security personnel had heard him ask that question. They all knew what he meant by it and they would all testify to it if need be to keep that man in custody longer and get some answers out of him.

As he sat there, John became aware of someone else in the room. He momentarily took his head out of his hands to look up and see Punk standing in the doorway.

"You mind if I come in for a minute?"

"Naw, come on in."

Punk sat down in a chair opposite the couch and looked at Cena for a moment before speaking. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I will be. We haven't heard anything from them yet." John paused and stared at his hands before going on. "How did he know? You haven't heard anything about a leak or...hell, I don't know."

"Sorry. Nothing. But if I ever do you'll be the first one I tell. We were all just as confused as you were. Still are." Punk sighed and took off his cap, running his hands through his hair. "We're all wondering. It hasn't been on the news or anything. He has to know something and we'll do whatever it takes to get it out of him. John, we're all going to do whatever we can until she comes home."

"I know. I just...I dunno. I feel helpless."

Punk looked at John and knew exactly how he felt. Probably more considering he'd been harboring this secret forever. Too many times he'd almost just said fuck it and let it out. To John, to Randy, to Jeff, to anyone. He couldn't imagine how good it would feel to get the weight off of his chest. But at the same time, the backlash from it would most likely be even worse. And now was not the time to start this conversation. Damn, this entire situation was not the time to bring up something like this. Letting out a sigh, Punk stood up once again and paused in front of John before leaving. "They'll find out what he knows. Until then, don't beat yourself up about it too much."

John watched him leave the room again and, not for the first time in the past few days, had that eerie feeling that something was going on with him other than his worry for Callie.

...

"Dad?" A pause. "DAD? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah honey. Prom. Try to keep it under a grand, will ya?" Dave was finding it harder and harder to feign interest in what was probably his daughter's most important night up until now. Her senior prom was coming up and she had been talking his ear off about dresses and shoes and all of those girly things teenagers liked. She was so excited about the popular boy at school asking her and he felt bad for not being excited for her but Callie was weighing on his mind. He had chosen not to tell his youngest daughter about what had happened, at least not until there was more information to tell. Callie and Athena had gotten along well, becoming shopping buddies and haveing girl talk for hours on the phone. It was great to him that they had hit if off and he was happy for another female figure in his daughter's life but now he didn't want to scare Athena, not to mention ruin her prom night. He had made the decision not to tell her about it until the news broke to the media or they found Cal, which ever came first.

After hanging up the phone, Dave looked around his hotel room. He could almost trick himself into thinking that Callie was in the bathroom, maybe just getting out of the shower, and she would come out any second, dewy skinned and smelling of japanese cherry blossoms, her favorite body spray. But that wasn't going to happen. When he'd gotten the news that she was missing he had just gotten done with a radio interview and was heading back to his hotel. Jeff had called him in a total panic and Dave had been able to hear a lot of commotion in the background which he later learned were cops. Time had stopped once the words had registered in his head and he had nearly dropped the phone, immediately turning the SUV around. There really wasn't any good he would be able to do at her house except get in the cops' way, and he knew that, but he had to be there. He had to see it all for himself.

Afterwards everything was foggy for David. He could remember being backstage for the events, making phone calls, talking with John, but he couldn't seem to remember any of the details. His entire memory of the past few days was a haze of confusion and anger. Eventually Vince had had to just tell him to stay away. It was understandable to Dave, he HAD been overly paranoid and suspicious to the point where was no longer any excuse for his behavior, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Sighing once more, he clicked off the lamp next to the bed. He knew he wouldn't get any sleep and that was okay. He was content to just lay in the dark and stare at the ceiling all night.

...

Someone was watching her. She could feel it before she ever even opened her eyes. Callie contemplated just laying as still as possible and avert another violent situation for a moment before she heard him speak.

"You're not fooling me, Love. Open up."

Callie slowly opened her eyes and saw that Wade was a foot away from her, staring down at her intently. "Well, good evening. Glad to see you're still among the living. I need you alive, at least until Wrestlemania."

Wrestlemania? What was he planning? She didn't have long to contemplate what he had said before Wade was ramming his lips to hers, knowing he wouldn't get the response he wanted but doing it anyway. In fact, Callie hadn't spoken a word since their first encounter after she had woken up here. That was fine by him. She tensed, knowing what was coming next and praying she'd pass out before he really got started.

...

Damn he was hot. Of course, every female on the planet already knew that. But she knew that she was the only one good enough for him. She'd been staring at him from across the room for nearly fifteen minutes now and was getting seriously pissed that he hadn't noticed her yet. He had walked into the bar earlier with Randy, both immediately taking a seat in the back corner, probably hoping to avoid being mobbed by the fans. Nothing of particular interest seemed to be going on, just two guys drinking some beers and talking. The least he could do is look up once in a while.

When Randy excused himself, probably to pee, she saw her chance to become a little more proactive about the situation and headed over to his table. Walking up behind him, she ran her hand over his shoulders and cooed soothingly into his ear. "Well, mind if I join you two?"

John looked up, slightly startled, and shook his head. "When are you gonna get the point Eve? I don't want to be with you."

"Now Johnny, don't be like that." She took the seat next to him, leaning her head into him and settling her hand on his thigh. "You and I both know you don't really mean that. How about we head up to your room and I'll convince you?"

"Seriously?" John jerked away from her. "I'm trying to have a conversation with my friend, who will be back any minute. And do you SERIOUSLY think that NOW is a good time to try and get in my pants? Right now, I have more important things to think about than sex. And I ALWAYS have more important things to think about than YOU! Step off hoeski."

With that he quickly stood, throwing some money on the table for the beer and stormed off to find Randy and head back upstairs. Before he couldn't enter the men's room he heard the click of her heels behind him. She didn't even wait for him to turn around before speaking. "One way or another, I will have you Cena. I thought that with that little bitch finally out of your ass it could happen. Apparently I'm just going to have to wait until they find her body and she's out of the picture for good!"

John had to stop himself from turning around and knocking her face off. His morals wouldn't allow him to hit a woman, no matter how much she deserved it, but he had never been so compelled to in his life. Just then, Randy came out of the men's room and walked straight to Eve, towering over her. "Listen here you little bitch, I EVER catch you saying ANYTHING like that again and I will rip your fat ass limb from FUCKING limb. Unlike Cena, I don't care if you've got tits, I'll break your ugly ass face anyway. And NO ONE in that locker room will side with you over us. I suggest you turn right around and get the hell out of here before I make you."

With that, Eve let out a huff and stormed off. Watching her go Randy heard himself mutter "slut" under his breath before checking on John. "You alright?"

"Yeah man, I shouldn't let her get to me. But she dares try this shit NOW?"

"Yeah, I heard it all through the door. I'm sorry you had o deal with that. Maybe you should let Vince know she's up your ass and talkin shit about Cal. He can make sure she stays away from ya."

"Maybe." Looking around and realizing they were getting looks from some of the other patrons near them he shook it off. "C'mon. Let's get goin. I'll call room service for a coupla beers and some dinner upstairs and we'll hang there." As they made their way back up the elevators John made the decision to just stay upstairs when he wasn't working. Another scene like that was going to be enough to make him completely snap.

**Next chapter is the night before Wrestlemania! Wade puts the finishing touches on his master plan and Punk contemplates coming clean about his secret. Will they find out what the man at the interview knows about Callie disppearing before it's too late?**


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Ah, the trusty old notebook. It had been pretty much his only friend for the past 2 months, the one thing that he had confided all of his secrets to. It was no wonder that Wade had decided to confess his final plans to it now. Already the front cover was tattered and torn, on the verge of falling off completely and nearly every single page was filled with rants, ravings and the carefully laid plans of his redemption. As he sat at the small table in his hotel room Wade muttered to himself as he furiously wrote, making no effort to stay within the lines. Even though he had been sitting in the same position for over two hours now, he didn't even notice the cramping in his back or the dull ache in his hand as it sped over the final page until he reached the very bottom, now completely out of space.

At that, he blinked at his watch and smiled to himself. He was right on time. The sun had completely set, leaving most of the room in shadow with the only light from a dim bulb by the bed. He would be up most of the night and probably tired for his match tomorrow but it would be well worth it to finally get his revenge on them both.

Standing from the table and packing the notebook away in his bag, Wade grabbed his rental keys, wallet and room key and headed out the door to the elevators. First, he needed a quick trip to the local walmart and then...well then he could go and see his precious Callie to prepare her for her big debut tomorrow. This was definitely going to be a Wrestlemania to remember.

...

"You're letting him go? You're seriously going to just let him walk out of here? What the hell?"

"Mr. Cena, Mr. Brooks, we got his story from him and it all makes sense. We have warned him to stay in town until further notice and I already have a couple of officers that are going to be keeping a close eye on him but unless we can connect him to your sister's disappearance we can't hold him. He's already been here the required 24 hours and if we hold him any longer against his will he could sue." The officer looked genuinely sorry that there wasn't more that could be done at the moment but it didn't help the two men's mood at all. "I'm sorry about this, really I am. But until more information comes in, we have to cut him loose."

As the officer left the meeting room, they both looked at each other, the same expression of anger and disbelief covering their faces. "What the hell kind of excuse is that?"

"I know Phil. I have a hard time believing he just 'overheard' some of the divas talking about it. Something doesn't add up here and I don't like it." John replied. He had arrived at the police station an hour before after getting a call from the officer handling the case. On his way out of the hotel he'd ran into Phil and invited him along. John had been hoping he could finally get a sense of what was going on with the punk lately but, once at the station, had lost all interest for the moment except for that the cop was telling him. He didn't hold too much faith that, if this man had anything to do with her disappearance, he would stick around for long for the police to catch him in the act of anything. "They wouldn't even tell us his name."

"Yeah, cause they know we'll track him down and find our own way of getting information out of him. At least he doesn't have tickets to the show tomorrow. Soon as I saw him in the crowd I would have had to jump that barricade and take his fat head off myself." Phil let out a long sigh and looked to John. "Guess we better go tell everyone."

"Yeah...I guess."

Once they were in John's rental again he turned to Phil and studied his face for a minute. The bags under his eyes were twice their normal size and the dark-haired man was extremely pale. Then again, none of them were getting much rest lately. It still worried John though. He put the key in the ignition but didn't turn it to start the sedan, instead turning his body slightly in the seat to face Phil. "Look, I don't like to pry into people's business and I know this whole situation is screwing with everyone but...I don't know, you seem a little more...hell, I don't know the word for it. Anything you wanna talk about?"

Was it really that obvioius? Punk knew he hadn't been himself lately but, then again, most of them hadn't. The drama was really starting to wear everyone down and he hadn't thought he'd been any more depressed than the others. "Well, John...I just..."

"What is it?" John saw the hesitation in his passenger. "You know you can talk to me if you need to. I mean, I know we're not close or anything but I think CC would want us to be there for each other. You've helped out a lot since she's been gone and don't think I don't appreciate it. I...I'm here if you need it."

"I know. And it's great, thanks. But...I..." Punk stared out of the front window of the car, rubbing his hands together nervously. "I'm just not ready to talk about it yet. One problem at a time, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know. It's cool. But we're all here when you're ready."

_'Yeah, everyone except the one person I really want to talk about it to' _Punk thought as John started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

...

Wade was so glad to have gotten out of that store in one piece. The Walmart in Arlington was quite literally a stone's throw away from Cowboy's Stadium and even at eight at night it was packed. Even just roaming around the store and picking up the items on his list he was picked out by fans, both natives and out-of-towners that were in town for the event. There were mixed emotions among the fans about his match at Wrestlemania but whether they were for him or against him, they were all happy to be able to meet one of the wrestlers. Normally he wouldn't have minded it but he was on a mission tonight. Loading his bags into the car and starting the engine he headed out towards Callie. Thankfully he didn't have far to go.

...

They say that without sleep, a person can quite literally go insane. A day or two awake won't do too much damage other than make someone a little slower, lagging in their daily activities and forgetting small details. But after three days with rest, the brain has to begin compensating by ignoring certain other functions. First, short term memory becomes a problem, followed closely by peripheral hallucinations. If one goes even longer without sleep it leads to auditory hallucinations, paranoia and, quite often, violence and irrational fears. Dave had heard this all before and even experienced some of the first stages of the process during his early days with the WWE, trying to keep up with a demanding schedule. Eventually he had learned how to manage the time better and overcome the obstacle of total sleep deprivation, but now those words were coming back to him as he lay, once again, awake in the dark. They had made sense to him back in those days because it had actually been happening to him but now, they didn't seem to apply at all. Oh, he was going crazy alright but it wasn't the sleep deprivation that was causing it. His own mind was the culprit this time. There were no hallucinations, no paranoia, no memory problems. The crazy was being cause by his lack of contact with both Callie and the rest of the events surrounding Wrestlemania. After being banned from the events, Dave had taken refuge in his hotel room, only coming out to work out in the gym and go to the store when needed. The hermit act had seemed the most likely option that would keep him from snapping at the wrong person and hurting anyone. Lord knows he didn't need to end up in jail again. He'd learned that lesson back when he was a bouncer in night clubs. But, staring up at the dark ceiling once again, it dawned on him that his isolation with his thoughts were what was driving him insane, keeping him from sleeping. It had been four days and he had only managed to doze once while sitting on the couch staring at an Adam Sandler movie he couldn't even remember the name of.

Turning over onto his side and glancing out the hotel window at the lights of the city outside, Dave came to a crucial decision. He would go to Wrestlemania tomorrow. He would show up and to hell with anyone who tried to throw him out, Vince included. He needed to talk with John and Jeff and Phil and all the others. He needed to both give and receive kind words and hope that this would all be resolved soon. Most of all, he needed to get back to some sort of life, whether Callie would be there or not. Isn't that what she would want? Dave could only imagine what she would do if she saw him now, wallowing in his own misery in a room kept constantly dark. Slap the hell out of him most likely, before dragging him from the bed and forcing him out the door and back into the real world. Yes, he would go to Wrestlemania tomorrow and nothing was going to change his mind.

...

Callie wasn't sure if she was awake or asleep by now. She vaguely remembered Wade entering the room once more, setting down various bags and coming over to her. She remembered the moment of panic when she saw the needle he produced and jammed into her neck. Everything after that was a drugged haze that she was almost thankful for but still scared of. It was obvious he'd given her some sort of tranquilizer to keep her from struggling but everything that she could discern that he was doing to her was completely new. She felt water and could only assume he was washing her, the stickiness of the blood fading away slowly as her newly wet skin chilled her even more. Then, the clothing. He was dressing her in what seemed to be some sort of loose pants and a tank top. What was his angle here? Not that she could have asked even if she had wanted to. She couldn't even move her own head from side to side the drugs were so strong. If she was lucky, maybe he would have accidentally given her a little too much and soon she would fall asleep and not wake up. Yeah, that would be nice.

...

After he was done, Wade stood back and admired his handiwork. The drugs he'd stolen weeks before had worked better than he hoped at keeping her placid while he cleaned and dressed her. She fell completely unconscious from it by the time he brushed out her long hair and he even put a new pair of socks on her, knowing it was chilly on the cement floor and she was already starting to develop a fever. She looked decent enough even though the bruises and cuts and scrapes were still clearly visible, even in the dim light. That was all part of the plan though. The more they stood out the better. Now, all he had to do was get her to the ring and wait to the show to start. Injecting her with a little more of the tranquilizer, just to make sure she didn't wake up before the appointed time, Wade gathered up the rest of the things he would need and unchained her from the leg iron before wrapping her in a blanket, picking her up and carrying her up the stairs.

**One more chapter until Wrestlemania! What's Wade planning and where is he taking Callie until then? What's this secret Punk has been harboring? And how will everyone react to Dave showing up backstage before the show? Just wait and find out!**


	18. Chapter 17

**Really short chapter but there wasn't a whole lot more I'd planned before getting to the big show so it's basically just a lil fluff. A couple little clues to where Wade might have taken Callie but not too sure it's enough to figure it out. We'll see. Enjoy and can't wait to start writing on the Wrestlemania chapter tonight!**

Chapter 17

The next day dawned bright and humid, as was the usual for this time of year. All reports of rain later in the day seemed a thing of fiction as Jeff walked out of the hotel and looked up at the cloudless sky, once again wondering what it was that made the skies of Texas seem so much bigger. After receiving a call from John last night that their mystery man from Axxess had yielded no information about Callie's whereabouts he hadn't been able to get back to sleep, staying up all night roaming the internet and watching B-rated movies until just before sun up. He'd showered and shaved for later that night before deciding to take a walk down to Lincoln Square to roam around. It was far too early for any of the stores ther to be open but the scenery was relaxing with all of Arlington's main attractions clearly visible in the distance and the interspersed statues and fountains in the large shopping center. As he didn't have a match scheduled for the show that night, his plans for the day were pretty much open. Most of the other guys would be preparing for last minute press conferences, rehearsals, promos and what-not so he really didn't expect to be bothered at all which suited him just fine because he wasn't always the crazy, outspoken guy fans always thought he was. That was the man that they saw on camera. In reality, Jeff was more introverted than anything, choosing to seek out quiet, thoughtful moments in his own head rather than live up to his reputation. Everyone needed to be alone with their thoughts at some point or another but he more than most and right now there was a lot to think about. Taking a right after crossing the main street behind the stadium, Jeff came up on the large fountain that seemed to be the focal point of the shopping center. It was easily fifteen feet wide with three stone horses in the center, each reared up on it's hind legs as if trying to escape the sprays of water coming from the bottom and shooting up at them. When they'd first arrived in Arlington, Callie and he had gone shopping over here and she'd explained to him that in the winter time they didn't turn the water on but there were always large red, Christmas-style ribbons around the horses necks and in the thirty degree weather people could still be seen sitting along the wooden benches surrounding it. He did this now, the Texas heat already making him yearn to take a dip in the clear water and play among the sprays. Instead, he pulled a travel sized notebook out of his pocket and began to jot down a few song lyrics as they came to mind, another one of his passions that his fans knew almost nothing about. At the top of the page, he titled it "Roads".

...

"So, apparently it IS possible to have the world's easiest diagram and STILL screw up the set."

"What?" Stephanie looked up as the lighting tech, Steven, walked through her office door and, seeing that she was alone, immediately began talking. He was one of the few crew guys who could get away with just blaring out whatever was on his mind around her, throwing all sense of business etiquette to the side. She had known him since she was sixteen years old and had accompanied her father during her summer vacation to many of their live shows. Back then, Steven had only been working for the company for a few weeks but had hit it off with the teenager, showing her around backstage and introducing her to all of the employees. Now, he was almost like her second father when she was out on the road with them and when she started working for the company, especially after becoming head of the creative team, he became her go-to guy. Good ol' Steve always knew what was going right and what was going horribly wrong backstage, all of the latest locker room gossip and, probably most importantly to everyone's curiosity, who was rumered to be sleeping with who.

"Yeah, see, Callie and I been workin together the past few months on these designs. She was usin some certain materials in specific places. Said when the lights would hit at certain areas they would help create different effects, textures or reflections or...somethin. Took me forever and I still don't fully understand but she been great up til now so it's easy to trust her judgement." Stephanie nodded in agreement. Callie's way of mixing certain props with lighting or spacial relations had a way of making even the people watching at home feel like they were right in the room with the wrestlers. "Been lookin at these diagrams she drew me out and they're the same ones that got handed off to that Andrew fella. I know he's done work for us in the past but he ain't so sharp when it comes to followin someone else's direction unless they're right there on his ass...pardon the language."

"Adding his own spin on things, is he?"

"Just ain't so good at followin direction is all. Lotsa the sets just ain't on their mark. I was wonderin..."

"If I'd give you permission to go fix it all and deal with him when he comes to me later to complain about it?" Stephanie finished for him with a grin.

Steven smirked. "You know me too well."

"Go for it. Wouldn't want Callie to kick all our asses when they find her and she sees the tapes of this."

"Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later. Thanks Steph. I'll check in with you later and let you know when it's all done."

Stephanie smiled as the older man left the room. Leave it to him to be the one to notice if something was an inch away from where a diagram said it should be. It was one of the reasons he'd stayed at this job for so long though, his attention to detail was impeccable and when you're running a live show every week of the year that quality was in high demand.

...

It's amazing how sometimes it's the big decisions that are the easiest to make and the small ones that leave you second guessing yourself at the last minute. Last night, laying in bed with sleep eluding him once again, it had been easy to finally tell himself that he wasn't going to stay away from the arena any longer, that he was going to be backstage at the show whether Vince wanted him there or not. But now, he'd been sitting there for the last hour trying to figure out what to wear. I know, silly for a guy right? But after beginning to pack his gear for the show he'd realized just how crucial of a decision it could be. Backstage at shows it was usually always business casual when you weren't shootin promos or performing but this was a pay-per-view that always tended to be more relaxed about dress codes considering everyone was so busy anyway. Dave had figured he would take his ring gear with him but suddenly, at the last minute, thought against it. If he was dressed out then Vince might take it as a sign that he was expecting to start trouble, possibly get into a few fights and make an unscheduled appearance ringside. That wouldn't go over well if he was planning on defying the big boss anyway by being backstage. The suits he'd brought with him were too dressy to hang around in for five hours and always made him feel like a performance monkey anyway. Jeans too casual? Ugh.

Finally, Dave shook his head and nearly laughed at himself. Isn't this something that girls are supposed to do? He's a guy right? Shouldn't he be the one who could just throw anything on and head out the door in ten minutes still looking like a million bucks? Should, but isn't. So, what would Callie have chosen for him to wear? The answer was easy. Dark blue jeans, black boots, black tank top and sleeveless leather vest over it all. Her favorite outfit on him that she tried to get him to wear whenever she could, usually ending up helping him out of it at the end of the night. He remembered the first time he'd ever worn it out to the ring to have a little chat with Orton for the fans. After he'd gottan backstage she'd dragged him back to her makeshift office, locked the door and...well...let's just say they'd gotten quite a few funny looked when they'd finally emerged. There would be no grand finale like that tonight though. Remembering that thought he sighed to himself and proceeded to put the outfit on anyway.

...

It was noisy. That was pretty much all she knew at this point. Sometime during the night Wade had moved her, but where? It was definitely dark, darker than it had been in that other room and, this time, she had a sense of being in a very confined space. She couldn't have opened her eyes even if there had been any light for her to see by. The drugs that he had pumped into her system were still working and she was conscious of a flurry of activity going on around her it was just too much effort to even attempt to get anyone's attention. Somehow she had a sense that no one would notice her anyway. She could hear people talking and things clanging around but it all seemed muffled, like it was coming from behind heavy curtains or closed doors. Eventually, she had tired herself out once again just thinking about it and fell back into the darkness that had become her only friend.

...

Hours later, chaos finally ensued. Fans lined up outside the arena hours before the show was even set to begin. Final preparations were made by everyone backstage, crew, management and wrestlers alike. Ticket stubs were torn, beer was bought, t-shirts and souvenirs were sold and finally, finally it was showtime. The national anthem was sung, opening animations cued up on monitors all around the control room, pyrotechnics lit from afar and those three words were announced that millions of people the world over had been waiting all year to hear. "THIS is WRESTLE...MANIAAAAAAAA!"


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 18

Wrestlemania had always been called the grandest stage of them all, promising excitement and wonder to young and old. This year was no exception. Just two hours into the event and already the fans had gotten more than their money's worth. Kofi came out on top in his Money in the Bank match, Piper's Pit was ressurected, the crowd was out of their seats screaming for their favorite characters. John barely registered any of it.  
>He and Dave had holed up in John's private dressing room the entire show, only coming out when work demanded. He had barely made it through his prromo spot an hour ago, leaving Dave to wonder if the younger man would be able to hold it together long enough to not injure either himself or his opponent during his match tonight. It was obvious both men were off in their own little world. Backstage assistants only ventured to knock on the door when absolutely necessary and, even then, their rapping was soft and respectful. Vince and Linda themselves had even seen to stopping by before the show began.<br>Both McMahons had been cautious but not surprised tto see Bautista there. After his outbursts when Callie disappeared and subsequently being banned from Axxess, Linda knew he would show up uninvited to Wrestlemania, if for nothing other than to show support for Callie's brother. Seeing as how he'd managed to keep himself secluded and out of trouble, they'd let the situtation pass without mentioning it directly.  
>Both men kept half-hearted vigils on the show before them and full attention on their thoughts.<p>

...

Over the course of time, Callie drifted in a haze of drugs and sounds. Though her vision was blurred, she would never have been able to tell for the surrounding darkness was so complete, it seemed a solid, cold mass. Callie coasted among nightmares made more frightening by the constant and deafening explosions that seemed to come from all sides. In them, she relived every terrifying moment of the past week; silently screaming for help but finding none. In each one, what haunted her most was the eyes...his eyes. Dark orbs burning into her with a ferocity that promised no mercy and no remorse. Beyond hurt, beyond caring whether she lived or died, all Callie prayed for now was freedom from those eyes.

...

"Damn, man," Shawn came up behind his longtime friend as he hobbled through the curtain. "I didn't think anything could top last year but, once again, you pulled it off."

Paul gave a pained grin to the other man as he cautiously put more weight onto his bad knee. "Yeah, well, hope everyone enjoyed it. Won't be too much longer before it's time to hang up the boots."

"Gonna join me in retirement, huh?"  
>Paul gave a deep laugh. "You know as well as I do, Shawn. No one ever REALLY retires from this company."<p>

"Especially when they marry the boss's daughter?"

Both men laughed and turned towards the makeshift hallway to the locker room when Mark came through the curtain, wearing his trademark Undertaker gear. "What? No love for the guy that just kicked your ass?" He asked with a slight chuckle.

"Hell no. Imma be limping around like lame horse for the next week cause of you."

"Aw, please." mark gave the blonde a pat on the shoulder. "You'll live, Besides, it'll get ya some good lovin' from Steph tonight."

All three laughed but as they turned to finish their post-match banter elsewhere, Shawn stopped at the sound of murmured confusion that snaked it's way around the nearby technicians. Shrugging it off, figuring that whatever was wrong was beyond his expertise as an athlete anyway, he sped up to rejoin his oldest friends.

...

"Michael, what the hell? We have twelve minutes to get this thing lifted and locked up for the next match." Andrew glared down at the clipboard in his hand and scratched his nose. He wasn't cut out for this job. He'd known that from the start. He'd tried to see it as a challenge but the longer he worked for the company the more apparent it became that live events were not his forte. Just a few short days ago he'd begun sending out his resume for something that wouldn't shorten his life by ten years everytime the cameras began rolling.

"Something's wrong with the system, Andy. The gears aren't responding."

"Well, take it back through the steps manually and try it again. We're on a time limit here." Andrew watched the other man turn back to his console and stared out of the control room window towards the ring where the giant steel cell remained unmoved and menacing.

...

Staring into the mirror, he took a deep, refreshing breath. After all the months of sleepless nights and planning, the day of fruition had finally come. He had expected to be more nervous; feel some butterflies maybe, but he was oddly calm. Probably because of all of his meticulous planning. Smoothing his hair back one last time, Wade grabbed the items he'd placed near the door, took one last look around and walked out. It was showtime.

...

Sitting in the locker room, he was doing his best to pay attention to the show but concentration wasn't coming easy. Punk's thoughts were consumed by Callie and the helpless feeling that coursed through him. At times like this, he almost wished he allowed himself to indulge in mood-altering vices. Maybe then he'd be better able to bury the feelings he'd been battling day in and day out. Why, now, of all times, did he have to come to this sudden epiphany when there was a very good chance none of it would matter anyway?

"Wait! What is this Cole?!" Punk was pulled from his thoughts at the genuine surprise in Jerry Lawler's voice and glanced towards the television to see Wade Barrett strutting down the ramp, no entrance music, with something shiny clutched in his fist. It was unusual because Barrett wasn't scheduled to do any on-camera work at the moment, especially not in the ring. But, then again, it was unusual for the cell to remain down around the ring for so long after a match too. Maybe there had been last minute changes but he hadn't heard of any. Suddenly, Punk was filled with an emotion that amounted to curiosity and dread mixed as one. It felt like an omen warning him that something horrible and momentous was about to occur and he found he could not look away from the screen.

Wade smirked at the crowd, reveling in the boos and jeers he received as he strode up to the ringhand nearest the ramp and demanded a microphone. When the stunned young man apparently took too long to respond, Wade jerked it out of his hand and proceeded to swing around, hitting him across the face and sprawling the smaller man out.

It was easy for Punk to see that his previous feeling had been grounded in truth. Wade had not pulled that punch at all. Already, a red welt could be seen forming on the ringhand's cheek and would probably be one hell of a bruise by the end of the show. Punk pulled himself from the thought to see Wade had entered the cell door and had begun to wrap a steel chain around it, amid much confusion among crew and referees outside the structure. The last thing he saw was Barrett using a rather large padlock to secure the chain, ensuring no one could join him inside. In one last moment of panic, Punk flew out of the room, nearly crashing into numerous people, jumping over trunks and crates before coming down the side corridor and bursting through the dressing room door.

...

Wade smiled and looked through the veil of steel at the crowd, the lights, the video screens. Taking in a deep breath he slowly climbed the steps and savored the feeling of ascending into the ring. He wanted to enjoy the moment, remember the feeling, because he knew this would be his last time. There was no going back now. Giving his crooked grin out into the arena he raised the microphone to his lips and began the most important promo of his life.

...

What the hell is going on?

Jeff wasn't sure who exactly said it but that seemed to sum up the general atmosphere in the arena. It was a madhouse of voices, each in their own urgent tone, giving ideas and squealing over radios. Unsure of what was taking place, the younger Hardy brother flagged down the person nearest him, a plump young woman with mousey brown hair.

"Hey," he gasped, barely grabbing her attention. "What's happening?"

She glanced around as if she were afraid someone would overhear and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Nervously, she answered "things aren't going as planned" before she hurried off, leaving Jeff just as bewildered as before.

...

"Well, I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm out here." Wade walked in slow circles around the ring, making sure to take his time. This was the only part he hadn't planned out and had kept it that was on purpose. He didn't was it to sound rehearsed, like part of the show. Oh, sure, the dumb clouts would eat it up at first but they'd learn soon enough. "First off, let me say that this is now MY show. I am in charge now."

Imagining the look on Vince McMahon's face at that remark brought another grin to his features. Little did he know that Vince never even heard it. At that moment, the CEO was barking orders for security into his headset and sending out crew, demanding they find out what was going on.

"You see," Wade continued. "This cell has one door. One way in and one way out. I control that door now. Why, you ask?" Barrett paused to smirk as the crowd booed in answer. "Well revenge of course!" He said it jolly, merry even, like announcing a party to friends. A party destined to be crashed by a homicidal maniac.

...

Dave and John both started at the sudden noise of the door slamming open and Punk bursting through, near breathless despite the short distance he'd run.

"What the fu..." Dave began, on his feet now, but Punk raised his hand to silence him.

"Are you guys seeing this?" He gestured towards the soundless monitor where Wade could be seen through the metalwork of the cell. They'd muted the television some time ago and, in the silence, had ceased to pay attention to it altogether. "Turn that up!" He grabbed the remote from the table and cranked up the volume before either of the other men could protest.

"All of you are priviledged enough to be able to bear witness to the greatest act of revenge ever carried out in front of an audience. You see, John Cena didn't just take my title from me. He took my dignity. He made me look weak..."

"What? They changed the lineup so Barrett could bitch. Probably just needed to take up some time," Dave looked from John to Punk.

"I don't think so. He took out an aide and locked himself in. Techs are in a panic cause the cell won't raise back up. Something's going on." Punk explained.

On the screen, Wade continued his speech. "What all of you don't know is that Cena's princess of a little sister snubbed me later that very same night." Wade had everyone's full attention now. John's blue eyes burned at the television screen. "It came to me that maybe both Cenas needed to be taught a very valuable lesson about respect." At the very mention of Callie, all three men were as stone statues, not moving or blinking, hanging on every work resonating from the speakers. A lesson? Sudden realization dawned on all of them causing the air to become thick with tension. This wan't part of the show. He was talking about Callie and he was talking about revenge.

...

The crowd began to seem uneasy. Even those who were not used to attending live events could feel that something was amiss. Wade kept on his slow, ambling circles around the rind, throwing his crooked smile at anyone who dared make eye contact with him. "You see," he continued. "Both of the Cena siblings have failed to show the proper respect due a champion of my caliber. But don't you worry your pretty little heads because after tonight, the matter will be rectified." Wade came around to the far side of the ring and stared directly into the camera. "John Cena, tonight you learn never to cross me again. You learn that there are consequences for your actions and, sometimes, it's the people you love the most that have to bear the consequences of those actions for you."

Backstage, John stared intently into the television screen. Somewhere, deep down, he already knew what was about to happen. All of the pieces were already fit together, forming the entire picture in his subconscious seconds before it materialized on the screen. He watched as Wade threw down the mic, wincing at the momentary feedback. Wade jumped down from the ring, away from the camera, bending down out of sight. John's heart began pounding uncontrollably in his chest, thumping away each second closer to the truth he had yet to allow himself to believe.

The entire arena was on the edge of their seats waiting with bated breath. As Wade disappeared farther down behind the ring, Cole and Lawler continued their chatter for the audience at home, hoping their concern was masked by their enthusiasm for the event.

"What is he looking for under the ring?"

"I don't know, COle, but this is getting weirder by the minute!"

Once again, the observation was timed perfectly because, at that moment, Wade tossed a steel chair into the ring and reached back down. What everyone saw next sent up a collective gasp from every single person involved. Wade used both hands to roll something else into the ring. Pale skin, shocking red hair. The very second John recognized his little sister, he was on his feet, running down the backstage halls, Dave and Punk close at his heels.

Wade crawled back into the ring and stared down at the limp body laying at his feet. Callie's face was swollen down one side while the bruises covered so much of her body that many of her tattoos were almost completely hidden. Maybe the fans didn't realize who they were looking at right away but both superstars and crew alike knew immediately. All of a sudden, behind the cameras was a flurry of activity. John and his cohorts raced towards ringside amid security personnel calling for backup, crew still struggling to lift the two ton cell and Vince spewing orders through every radio within earshot. After so long of not having any idea what happened to Callie, she was under their very roof, for anyone knew how long. It was apparent just by looking at her that she had been through hell and back. Ribs protruded from her torso beneath the thin tank top she wore and her bodysuit of bruises glared in the overhead lighting.

Wade ambled over and picked up the microphone before towering over his victim once again. Though he was looking at Callie, he spoke directly to John. "This is what happens when you cross me, Cena. Say goodbye to your precious baby sister." The microphone hit the ground once more, this time outside of the ring, bouncing off of the cell wall. He then reached down and grabbed a handful of red hair, dragging her over to the corner of the ring. He climbed out to the apron, leaning down through the ropes to grab the small woman by the throat.

Screams and jeers resounded from the crowd at the realization of what was unfolding before them. At Wade's last words, those in the audience that hadn't quite caught on, especially those that had attended the Axxess Q and A session, recognized where this 'storyline' was going and added their own sound effects to the uproar.

Slowly, Barrett manuvered Callie into a standing position; her only visible sign of life was a feeble attempt to raise her hands to the vice around her throat. Just as Wade began to climb the ropes, still grasping his prize, a deafening roar rose up from the stands as John emerged from the curtain followed by a small army hellbent on entering the steel structure at any cost. Dave and Punk's immediate appearance was no surprise to anyone since her friendship with the two men was common knowledge among fans but the ferocity with which they flew at the steel was frightening. Both superstars raged like two men possessed by demons thirsty for sacrifice. All three posted up at the corner nearest the ramp where Wade was cutting off more of Callie's air supply by the second, screaming orders to let her go, willing the cell to raise up and allow them to save her. No such miracle occurred.

Wade grinned down at the helpless men surrounded by security and crew scrambling over each other to figure out what to do. He climbed so his feet were on either side of the top turnbuckle, squatting down to keep Callie's feet on the mat. This was the moment he had dreamt about for so long. Every detail was like a rerun of a television show he'd seen a thousand times. His joy is what gave him the push to cross that forbidden point of no return. In one swift motion, Barrett stood to full height on the top ropes, lifting Callie high above his head, his manicured nails leaving blood marks along her neck. As the screaming from the crowd reached it's climax, Wade went down, not only chokeslamming her from above the top rope but coming down on top of her as well, relishing in the crackle of her ribs splitting beneath his weight. Callie was utterly limp, her head and limbs bouncing off of he mat like rubber. When her body finally settled and Wade lifted himself to admire his handiwork, she was laying on her side, her hair partially covering her face. Through the steel wall of the cell, the cameras captured a find trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

For the three witnesses outside of the ring, the entire scene played out in slow motion. John saw his sister coming down from the top rope; saw too late that Wade positioned himself to come down on top of her, heard the thunder of their bodies hitting the mat together. His screaming had ceased for the moment, no words able to force themselves past his throat. All eyes were on Callie, waiting for any sign of life. Few noticed that Wade had almost immediately gone over and picked up the chair he'd thrown into the ring earlier. John himself was so focused on Callie that even he had failed to notice until the steel came down across the top half of her body, the sound seeming to reverberate through the entire arena.

As the rest of the world watched in horror, Wade brought the chair down again and again, bringing more blood to the mat. Each time it fell, the crowd wailed in shock at the violence Wade put before them. They had come to see a show, not a murder.

While Barrett continued to pummel Callie in the ring, the three superstars outside of the cell watched in terror as they kept trying to find a way in. Punk and Dave were busy circling the structure, hoping for a loose end or long forgotten trap door, while John screamed Callie's name, unable to tear his eyes away from her. John felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Randy and Jeff behind him, along with almost everyone else from the locker room. He wasn't sure who's idea it was or who'd brought them ringside but crew to his right were using blot cutters to create a hole in the cell's fencing as quickly as they could, snapping each wire individually almost in rhythm with the impacts of the chair with Callie's head.

As soon as the hole seemed large enough, John plunged through without warning, taking no notice of the cuts he would bear for weeks from the sharp points protruding from the wall of steel. He lunged towards Wade only for enough to remove him from his sister, dropping down to shield her from any more blows that came but none did. Dave had followed closely behind and speared Wade through the ropes and onto the floor below, out of John's sight.

With Barrett being handled, John took the time to look down at his sister and almost immediately wished he hadn't. Her body was covered in bruises and cuts, her head bleeding profusely from an unseen gash. Dark circles painted beneath her eyes shone against the pale skin surrounding them. Tears sprung to his eyes at the sight of her like this. When they'd first met, she'd been underweight, weakened by hard work. Everything about her had screamed 'waif'. In fact, since then he'd taken great pride in watching her transformation into the beautiful woman everyone knew and loved. But this...if it weren't for the fact that she needed him so much, he might have turned away just to spare himself the memory. Gingerly, John reached out a hand and lightly touched her cheek, her hair. At this, it seemed a dam broke within him. Mindful of whatever injuries she'd sustained, he leaned over her, quietly repeating her name and running his hands through her hair. The red snapped him back to reality. It couldn't have been more than a minute since he first looked down at her but, in that time, only he and Callie had existed for him. Blood covering his hand from her hair brought him out of his shock long enough to look around. The fans were still screaming and, taking a quick survey of his surroundings, John saw why. Crew had widened the hole in the cell enough to allow a safer entrance and the ring had quickly filled with WWE personnel along with with many superstars, Jeff among them, who were trying to pull Bautista off of Barrett before he killed him. As much as they would all love to see Wade as a lifeless corpse for his actions, Dave would be of no use to Callie from a prison cell. Punk was kneeling on her other side with tears brimming in his eyes. The two men locked gazes for a brief moment before they were surrounded by medical personnel attempting to move them out of the way. Punk allowed himself to be pushed aside easily enough but John was a different story. He clung to her as if she would disappear again before his very eyes. With her lifeblood quickly pooling on the mat, it seemed a very good possibility.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 19

John stripped off his shirt and , snaking his fingers under her neck, put it beneath her head before taking the towel the EMT was holding out and pressing it to the gash now barely visible in her hair. Paramedics had finally given up on trying to get him out of the way and had put him to work instead. As soon as Callie felt hands on her, she mustered the last of her strength in what seemed like resistance of the salvation being offered; weakly pushing hands away, head trying to move from beneath her brother's firm grip.

"Dammit," said one medic, looking to the others with him. "If she won't stop she'll make herself worse. She needs to be still. We got sedatives?"

His partner, a heftier man with no hair, spoke up. "No chance. She was obviously under this ring since before the show started. He had to have drugged her to make sure she didn't get out. We might overdose her on top of everything else."

Punk, who'd been only a couple of feet away, understood before everyone else did. "But that means..." he trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud but the medic did it for him.

"That's right. No pain meds either. Not until she gets a tox screen at the hospital. There's no telling what he's pumped into her system."

The thought of the amount of pain Callie must be in churned his stomach and Punk turned to where he'd last seen Wade. Apparently Dave had done quite a number on him because he was still on the ground surrounded by medics of his own.

John leaned down, getting as close to Cal's head as possible without getting in the way, and began talking to her; reassuring her she was no longer in Wade's grasp. Big brother was here for her now and he would ensure Barrett would never lay hands on her again. He wasn't sure if she actually understood any of what he was saying or if she simply recognized the low vibration of his voice. Whichever it was, she settled her rejection of the medics' hands and used the last of her energy to slowly turn her head towards the sound before slipping back into oblivion.

A cheer from the crowd reminded the desperate souls in the cell that this was not a private moment. There were thousands of people around them, each one forever a part of this very personal scene. Looking around, Punk felt a sudden hatred for these fans. However unwittingly, they were encroaching on what he thought of as extremely private territory. Though the feeling was unfounded he couldn't stop himself from wnting to throw a curtain around the entire situation to shield them from unwanted eyes. As he continued his scan of his surroundings he saw why the fans had resumed their cheering. Khali and Show had each taken a side of the hole in the cell wall and widened it enough to allow the stretcher to be passed into the ring. It was a step in the right direction but he dreaded the thought of them taking her away from them all again. What if she didn't make it that far? This could easily be the last time he saw her alive and he couldn't even get close to her. He looked down at her again to see the medics had been busy whilst his attention was elsewhere. Callie donned an oxygen mask connected to a small, portable tank along with several temporary bandages and they were gathering their supplies. Their first objective was to get her out of the ring and away from the cameras. They would do what they had to to try and keep her alive backstage until more ambulances arrived. Both of the ones usually on standby had already been sent off with participants from previous matches. For the first time in his life, the WWE's resident atheist prayed.

...

Time moved in phases for Dave. Later, when he would look back on this incident, it would seem to him as a montage of events with numerous blank spots in between. The very second he registered that an entrance had been made, he'd charged through behind John. Seeing that her brother had her covered, Dave bypassed Callie altogether and lunged directly towards Barrett, oblivious of all else going on around him. He took no notice of his bad shoulder hitting the ground after they cleared the ropes or Wade's attempts at retaliation. The only thing he felt was the sudden release of every emotion that had been surging through him since Callie's disappearance. Finally, he unleashed all of the anger, the violence that had taken control of his senses. Once his hands were on Wade, Dave was like a pitbull tearing into a weaker animal; eyes wild with fire and teeth bared. Every fist hit it's target, inflicting upon the prone man the very same pain he'd caused Callie. When hands began grabbing at him, pulling him away from his victim, Dave wasn't even able to connect names with faces; distinguish friend from foe. He did know that they were keeping him from settling a score with Barrett and he began to fight them too, swinging wildly at anything near him, determined that nothing would stop him from avenging Callie.

But it was Dave's own body that would betray him. Faces blurred together while sounds and voices echoed from far away. Before Dave knew what was happening, everything around him was spinning out of control and he collapsed mere feet from where Wade lay covered in blood.

...

Flashing lights. In the beginning it was all Callie saw. She'd been in the dark for so long that the light was harsh and blinding. It caused her head to pound even harder while colors swirled behind her eyelids. The screaming coming from all around only served to heighten her inner panic. There was searing pain and a crushing weight on top of her. Then came the hands, grabbing at her, moving her. She'd tried her best to push them away but they persisted. All Callie wanted was to be left alone to drown in the pain but a voice came out of the darkness, pulling her back to the surface. A voice that promised safety and warmth. It was deep and melodic, quieting her pitiful objections to the physical contact she now feared. Following the words of comfort as a child does a lullaby, Callie allowed herself to slip into unconsciousness, certain that the soothing voice would lead her away from Wade and to whatever salvation fate had chosen.

...

Every year fans from around the globe flocked to Wrestlemania expecting one of the most memorable events of their lives. None was as memorable as this. Every person in the stands was on their feet but they were no longer cheering or booing their favorite superstars. Now, they stood in quiet reverence of the scene before them. Both Callie and Dave had been loaded onto stretchers and EMTs were working them through the opening in the cell, now widened enough to accommodate them. Blood was still seeping from beneath the bandage on Callie's head, leaving droplets along her path out of the structure. More confusion had erupted at Dave's unexplained collapse and suddenly they had been calling for even more medical help, all while the world looked on. Viewers from around the globe and in person watched in near silence as superstars shed disbelieving tears, as friends were reunited and wrenched apart again...and as the entire WWE roster very publicly showed that John's little sister would forever be a part of their family.

As the medics wheeled her stretcher towards the ramp, the sea of wrestlers that had come to help earlier parted to make way. It was almost a salute to not only Callie but all of those involved in the drama within the cell; the way they protectively lined up along either side of the ramp, heads lowered respectfully. There they waited as, first, Callie was taken past them with John still clinging to her side while Punk followed. Next came Dave flanked my EMTs of his own with Jeff and Randy bringing up the rear. What happened next didn't escape the grasp of even the most simple-minded viewer. In what was not only a show of support for their friends but more a public exile of the one that had betrayed them all, the lines of superstars closed in behind them, joined by both crew and personnel. The mass of bodies kept a distance between Callie and Wade. It was almost an unspoken plan, the way they all moved at once. They weren't for a moment actually trying to keep Wade from getting to the hospital. Death from his injuries would be too easy on him. But he was a traitor and they took care of their own first.

After the last superstar was out of sight and Wade was finally getting his turn through the curtain, the cell began to rise.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 20

"C'mon Randy. Hurry up!" Jeff pestered his friend across the parking lot. Their parts in the show being over, they'd been given permission, along with the rest of the roster that weren't needed for the show, to leave the arena early. After spending an hour being questioned by the police, they'd taken Orton's rental and made their way to the hospital where Callie and Dave were being treated.

"Go on ahead." Answered Randy as he stopped just outside of the doors. "I'm going to call Sam and let her know what's up."

Jeff turned to the taller man. "She was watching, huh?"

"Yeah." Randy's voice remained low. "She and Cal hung out whenever I brought her to a show. They were getting close. I should give her a call."

"Alright man. See you inside." Jeff left Randy to his phone and entered the electronic doors. He wasn't sure what it was about hospitals that always made his stomach churn. Probably the overwhelming smell of sanitizer. Well, it could also be the suffocating reality that people frequently died here but, right now, he was going to keep telling himself if was the antiseptic. Scanning the waiting area in the emergency department and seeing no one he recognized, Jeff walked up to the reception desk where a young brunette was flipping through files. As he approached the counter she looked up from her work and gave a smile rimmed with sympathy.

"Are you from the wrestlin' company?" Her southern drawl didn't escape his notice, nor did her large brown eyes.

"Yeah," he answered, laying his own accent on thickly. "I'm actually lookin' for a few people."

The nurse, whose nametag read Beth, gave a knowing nod. "Someone already called from there. Said to expect quite a few of you to start comin' in. We got ya'll set up in a private waitin' room upstairs. I can take you up there."

Jeff looked around at some of the stares he was getting from others and was suddenly thankful someone had had the forethought to take care of things. "Thanks. Uh, my friend's outside on the phone. I think I'll wait until he gets here. Save ya a trip."

"Sure thing."

"Ummm..." Jeff stopped her as she turned to the filing cabinet behind her. "You don't know how my friends are doing, do you?"

"I'm sorry, honey. There hasn't been any from word from the docs on 'em yet."

...

"Alright babe...yeah...okay...I'll call you as soon as we know something...I love you too." As Randy hung up the phone he looked up to see Punk walking towards him with Kofi and Ron, having caught a ride with them after answering questions of their own for the cops.

"You seen em yet?" Punk's eyes were wide with anticipation but his spirits fell as Randy shook his head.

"We just got here. I was actually calling Sam so I haven't even been in yet."

"How's she doin?" Kofi inquired of Randy's wife.

"Worried, like the rest of us. Cal doesn't make it...well, John'll never be the same."

All four men entered through the glass doors to be met by the same awe-struck stares. "Don't worry," they heard as the colorful wrestler came up to them. "They gave us a waiting room up on the third floor."

"Good." Punk felt like his mind had been read. "I love fans but now isn't really the time."

"Are all of you ready? I can take you up now if you are."

...

The lights of the city twinkled in the dark curtain hanging beyond the hospital window. From three floors up John watched the cars driving below on Cooper Street. If Callie had been here watching with him, she would have been making up stories about who these people were and where they were going. Fantastic epics about their families, their jobs and even their pets. She would make them spies or movie stars, famous writers or starving artists, weaving her tales so deeply it was easy to lose yourself in them. But Callie wasn't beside her brother. Her small singsong voice wasn't twisting tales to make him laugh. Right now, Callie was downstairs being worked on by doctors and nurses; a whole team of people called into action for her survival. John had already been waiting for what seemed like forever in the room he'd been led to. It was comfortable enough with it's monotone carpet and plush couches but John would still rather be anywhere else. He looked down out of the window, still watching the lights below, as his cell phone went off in his pocket. It had been ringing off the hook since he'd arrived and, this time, he didn't even bother to look at it. His friends and family were calling nonstop. The fact that he hadn't answered or returned any of the messages should have been their hint to back off but still they persisted. It wasn't that he was actually busy, as they should already have assumed, he just wasn't ready to deal with all of the questions he had no answers for. It could have been someone from the company, Vince even, but he didn't care. If it was important enough, they knew where to find him.

He turned at the sound of the door opening behind him to see that his misery finally had some company. They were led in by the nurse he'd seen downstairs and, even in his current state, John didn't miss the look she gave Jeff as he strode past her into the room.

"Hey, sorry it took so long." Randy came up to John first. "Cops made us stay and asked a million questions. How you holdin up?"

Before he even had a chance to answer, John's phone sounded again. Pulling the cell out of his back pocket, he hit the ignore button and turned it off. "I'd be a lot better if they'd tell me something. And if I could throw this out the window," he said, holding up the phone.

"Your family is worried."

"I know, I know. And my friends and the trainers and the crew AND the cops. Damn thing hasn't stopped since all of this happened."

"Well, if you need some time, I can take it."

John looked up questioningly. "Take it?"

"Your phone," Randy clarified. "If you want I can take the calls for you. Tell em all what's going on. Get em off you back for a little while."

John let out a breath as he studied his friend's features. "Are you sure? I mean, it's literally going off every five minutes."

"I'm sure." Randy grinned. "Besides, if I sit around here with nothing to do I'll go crazy. Make me feel useful."

John handed over the touch-screen and everything about his expression screamed a silent thank you to Orton. Before anything else could be said, the door opened once again and a white-coated doctor entered the room. Probably somewhere in his sixties, he stopped short when he saw the rough and tumble men before him.

"Ummm..." He stalled by looking down at the file in his hands. "Is one of you related to Callie Cena?"

"Yeah." John's voice came out as a whisper. "I'm her brother."

"I'm doctor Kevin Richards. I've been one of the physicians that's been treating Callie since she came in." He shook the hand that John mechanically offered to him. "Let me start by saying that Callie is still alive but...well, it's not looking good." He paused and looked around at all of the expectant eyes on him. They were waiting for him to tell them that he had medication or some miracle surgery that would save her but he was going to disappoint them. All he had was the truth. "Callie has sustained substantial internal damage. Her initial x-rays show her broken ribs have punctured her right lung and it's quickly filling up with blood. She has numerous other fractures and internal bleeding. Honestly, though, there's only so much we can tell from her tests."

"What do you mean?" Punk spoke up.

Kevin looked to John. "We need your permission to take her into surgery. We won't know for sure exactly how much damage has been done until we can see for ourselves."

"Of course," John eagerly agreed. "Whatever needs to be done to help her."

"I'll send a nurse up a little bit later with the paperwork..."

"No, now." John was suddenly on edge. "I know how hospitals work. You can't do the surgery until I sign. I'll do it now."

"Well, it would matter either way, Mr. Cena. Unfortunately we're going to have to wait before we can begin anyway. We've estimated we can afford about two hours before we absolutely can't wait any longer."

"Why can't you take her now?" Randy's confusion was mirrored by everyone.

"Well," the doctor continued. He seemed to become more anxious the deeper he got into explaining Callie's injuries. "All of her bloodwork has come back showing massive doses of sedatives and opiates but she's also severely malnourished. Ummm...actually, it seems that she wasn't given any sort of nourishment the entire time she was missing."

John felt physically sick. Not only had she been kidnapped and tortured but Wade had starved her as well, adding to her suffering. "Nothing at all?"

"I had her charts faxed over from her general physician. At her last checkup a month ago she was 104 pounds. Now she weighs in at 82."

"She lost 22 pounds in a week?!"

"Once the first few days pass, the body goes into starvation mode and starts burning off it's stores of fat and muscle. Callie didn't have much of either to spare, plus her body was overcompensating because of her injuries added to complete dehydration. All of it caused her body to fall comatose. We have her on IV fluids and medication but until we can stabilize her, surgery is a death sentence. Her body isn't strong enough to handle the stress of the operation."

"Can she survive until then?" John's voice cracked as he tried to control his racing thoughts.

"We've inserted a tube into her chest to keep draining her lung and she's receiving transfusions to replace the blood she's losing. If it comes down to it, we are fully prepared to begin surgery at any time but the stronger we can get her before then, the better her chances of survival."

This time, it was Jeff's turn to speak up. "Did you say she was in a coma? Like, from head injuries?"

"Yes and no. The gash on Callie's head is pretty deep but not enough to cause that kind of reaction. Amazingly, there are no signs of swelling or bleeding around her brain either. Her comatose state is her body's defense mechanism against all of the physical trauma. It's quite common actually. She's sustained so much damage that her brain has shut down everything except the bare minimum needed to live and heal. Basically, it's the brain's way of rerouting what energy she has left to the places she needs it most."

"So...when she gets better she'll come out of it?"

"We hope so. Right now, our main concern is to get her strong enough for surgery. We're going to have to take this one step at a time."

"I want to see her." The sentence left John's lips as more of an order than a request.

"Well, she's downstairs still. She's highly unstable and we haven't had a chance to clean her up yet..."

"I don't care." John took several steps towards the physician, looking down at the shorter man. Usually, he wasn't ow to use his size or his status to intimidate someone to get his way but he would justify this to himself later. H'ed had enough of people making excuses and telling him to wait. "You said you had two hours before surgery. I'm going to spend them with her." The tone of his voice was suddenly low and dangerous. In a flash, John Cena went from a scared man to a fierce older brother. It became quickly apparent to the doctor that it would be in his best interest to keep all of these men happy.

Dr. Richards had a sister of his own. Karen was seven years his junior and, if it were her in this situation, he couldn't say he wouldn't be demanding the exact same thing. "Okay," he agreed. "But remember, with her in a coma, she won't respond to any outside stimuli. There's no guarantee she'll even know you're there."

"Doesn't matter. I may not get any more time after this."

Kevin gave an understanding nod. "I'll have the nurse bring you down in a few minutes." He stopped and looked to the others. "And if there's anything you need in the meantime, please let one of the nurses know." After another sympathetic glance, he turned and left the room, softly closing the door behind him. As it shut all of the men in the room looked to John.

"You going to be able to handle this?" Punk asked, laying a reassuring hand on Cena's shoulder.

He let out the breath he'd been holding and looked at his friends. "Don't have much of a choice, do I? At least she's here with us. If it has to happen, then at least she won't die alone." At that, John gave them all a weak smile. It was the only silver lining he could think of.

...

Just how the event managed to go on after Barrett's violent display of revenge, no one could fathom. Even after the steel cell was raised there was chaos throughout the arena before they were finally able to get back to the script. The mat in the ring was removed and, with it, the dark stains of Callie's blood. At the last minute, Linda made an executive decision and banned the cell from being used in it's other match that night. Eventually, the matches did begin again. The fans still cheered their favorites and booed the heels but it was different than before. Their enthusiasm for the event had been darkened by what they'd seen. The worst part was the superstars that still had to perform that night. Those poor souls that had watched the scene with panicked hearts still had to pull themselves together long enough to put on a show worthy of Wrestlemania. But each one had other things on their mind. Ever since the incident, Shawn had secluded himself in the back to pray for his friends while waiting to drive Paul to the hospital with some of the others. Oscar, his Mysterio mask long since removed, had been busy on the phone reassuring his children that he loved them and he would see them soon. Stephanie McMahon was in the car on her way to Arlington Memorial while Vince was swamped with police and media alike. It was far too late to set up any sort of crime scene; they all knew Wade was the antagonist in this story anyway, but they cops were searching the arena and units had already been dispatched to his hotel room while calls were being made to his friends and family overseas. No one could believe that Barrett had hidden both his plans and Callie so well.

That night, the fans went home dumbfounded, unable to wrap their heads around what they'd seen. Many had been able to convince themselves that it was nothing more than a very elaborate plot twist designed to bring Cena's sister back into the spotlight. When they woke the next morning to read the many reviews and blogs available, they would struggle even harder to deny themselves the truth.

After the show, the locker rooms and back hallways of the stadium were eerily quiet. Crew packed up the sets and equipment in near silence. Superstars showered, changed and gathered their things to head for either their hotels or the hospital with heavy thoughts. Even well after midnight, police were still asking questions and taking notes, showing no signs of departing anytime soon.

...

Sighing as he hung up the phone for what seemed like the millionth time, Randy looked up at the brick building, wondering what was going on inside. After their initial encounter with Dr. Richards, he'd made his way outside to begin the arduous task of answering all of John's calls. He honestly didn't mind helping out his best friend but explaining the same depressing details over and over was emotionally exhausting. Luckily for him, one of the first incoming calls he'd answered was from Sean, John's brother. After inquiring about both John and Callie, he assured Randy he would spread the news to the rest of the Cena clan, taking at least some of the pressure off of Orton. He still had John's other friends to worry about but he gave minimal information to non-family like Sean asked him to and politely asked them to give John some space. Most agreed, some seemed slightly offended but all were equally concerned.

...

"But what about Dave? Have you figured out why he collapsed like he did?" Stephanie was on information overload. Between dealing with the cops at the arena and now doctors at the hospital she was at her wit's end. Not only was she still reeling from the event and the news about Callie's condition but Bautista's ailment was adding fuel to an already raging fire.

"Mr. Bautista's condition is stable right now. His bloodwork is showing low levels of...well, pretty much everything. He's suffering from dehydration, echaustion and his blood sugar makes it obvious he hasn't been eating either."

"Mix that with the excitement of finally going after Wade..." Paul chimed in.

"And it was a certain recipe for disaster. His whole system went on overload." The physician finished for "He's being given fluids and we're keeping him heavily sedated for the time being. He's not in any imminent danger but I do want to keep him under observation for a few days."

"Thanks Doc." Paul shook the man's hand and watched him walk away before turning to his wife. "You gonna' be okay?" He asked, rubbing his hand up and down the small of her back.

"Yeah. Just so much shit at once. All of this with Cal and Barrett and now we're going to be short several superstars for RAW tomorrow." Steph rubbed her arms against the chill of the hospital. With her parents at the arena and Shane running interference at Titan Towers she was doing her best to keep things together here but she felt like she was going to fall apart herself. The WWE had certainly dealt with numerous emergencies before but none like this. None that involved so many people, so many disrupted lives. "I mean, we have less than 24 hours to come up with an explanation for all of this and a new show for RAW."

"Well, let's go catch up with the others." Paul suggested. "See how everyone else is doing before checking in with Vince." The pair started off down the too-sterile hallways hand in hand.

...

John didn't realize he was holding his breath until his body started running on pure instinct, forcing the air from his lungs. The nurse had left him outside of an area encircled by glass windows, their blinds shut against unwanted stares. He'd been standing outside of the door for what seemed like forever but had yet to cross the threshold. He shouldn't be hesitant but he was terrified. John had seen his sister endure the torment incurred in the ring and knew he would never be able to erase those images from his memory. He wasn't sure if he was ready to add more to the collection.

Over time, Callie had become more than just a long lost sister. In her, he had found a loyal friend and confidant. But John couldn't help feeling like he'd let her down. Wasn't it his job to watch over her? Where had he been when Barrett forced his way into Callie's home and took her?

Taking a deep breath and biting the bullet, he pushed open the glass door and entered the rounded room. John waited for the sound of the door hissing shut behind him before opening his eyes to take in the scene. Callie lay on the gurney, the puddle of blood still beneath her head though it was no longer growing. Her clothes had been removed to give the medical teams easier access to her injuries. In an attempt at modesty, a beige, stretchable bandage was wrapped loosely around her chest while, from her clearly visible hip bones down, a thin sheet covered her. In the harsh glare of the overhead lighting John could see every bruise and point of impact; every fingerprint and chain mark stood ugly and dark against her ashen skin. IV's and wires came from nearly every area of her arms and torso. John quickly noticed the tube protruding from the ribs beneath her right arm; the tube Dr. Richards had told him was keeping her from drowning in her own blood.

Slowly, John walked to the bedside and looked down at Callie. Her hair tangled around her shoulders, breath coming in short rasps through the oxygen mask over her nose and mouth as she struggled to stay alive. There were wires attached to her forehead and chest and, when he followed them with his eyes, John found himself looking at various machines above her head.

The room was silent except for the uneven blip of the heart monitor and the echo of his own heart throbbing in his ears. He sat down in the chair someone had set beside the bed and enfolded his sister's hand in his, taking notice of how cool and clammy her fingers were. Almost immediately, that small touch was not enough and, just as he had at the arena, he leaned forward and touched her. He kissed her hot brow and let his tears fall into her hair, squeezing his eyes tight against this new reality. John remained like that for several minutes, allowing himself to eke out what minimal solace there was in the feel of her body solid against his own skin. When he finally sat back, hands still entwined, it wasn't Callie that he looked at but down at the tiled emergency room floor, the dark specks of the utilitarian design blurring together through his tears. Softly and thoughtfully, he spoke. His first words were so raspy and hoarse from his sobbing, John had to clear his throat and begin again, keeping his gaze lowered in self-shame.

"I'm sorry." His words, audible now, were still barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you C.C. I'm sorry I didn't find you in time. And...I'm sorry the last conversation we had was a fight because I kept secrets from you. Because I lied to you." John paused, almost unable to figure out how to go on. Dr. Richards had warned him that Callie couldn't hear him anyway but he held onto the hope that something would get through. "I know I don't deserve to ask you for your forgiveness," he continued, looking up from the floor to her closed eyes. "But I am going to beg you to not give up. I don't know where you are or what you're going through right now but we're all still here...and we need you. Dave and Punk need you. Jeff REALLY needs you," John gave a weak chuckle for her benefit at the small joke. "And...really...I need you." His voice cracked as more tears threatened to fall. "I know I lived without you once but I don't know how anymore. It would never be the same. I would never be the same. You're the flip side of my coin. I love you little sister. Please come back." At that, John kept silent watch over her still form, feeling his heart drum in time with the beeping of Callie's monitor.

...

"Alright, someone has to say it." Lashley broke the tense silence of the waiting room. "Might as well be me. What the holy fuck?!" The expressions of everyone's faces proves that he'd uttered what they'd all been thinking. "I mean, Barrett? I never would have guessed."

"We all knew he was a little off," Kofi chimed in. "But kidnapping? Callie?"

Mark stood from his seat, pent-up energy getting the best of him, and ran his hand over his now-dry hair. "How the hell did he manage to jam that cell down?"

"He planned it all along." The voice came from the couch by the window where Justin Gabriel had been sitting quietly until now. Being a part of the former Nexxus with Wade gave him even more reason to be confused by the larger man's behavior. The two had spent a lot of time on the road together during their careers. Justin looked up with innocent eyes at the others in the room. "He's the one who took her when she went missing. He had her all along...and we saw him every fucking DAY this whole time! How fucked up is that?!"

"Hey," Shawn laid a hand on the younger man's shoulder from his perch on the arm of the sofa. "We all know how you feel. Wade turned his back on everything for some imagined offense and played us all."

"It just seems like we should have know something wasn't right with him. Seem something wrong."

"Problem is, I'm sure we did. At least, some of us, anyway. But it probably didn't seem wrong at the time. Things that won't make sense until we look back on them and piece it all together." Shawn sighed as he turned his speech to the entire room. "We can't try to make sense of it right now. If we do, we'll make ourselves just as insane as Barrett is." Several others nodded their agreement. "All we can do right now is accept that it happened and pray that Wade predicted the wrong outcome."

The room remained silent while they contemplated this. Essentially, Shawn was right. The police would uncover more details about Wade's motives in time. Until then, they could easily drive themselves crazy speculating about Wade's plans. The fact was, none of them knew exactly what had gone on in his head and, even if they could take a peek, would never have been able to comprehend what they were seeing. Their main concern right now was Callie and Dave being taken care of and seeing justice done on Barrett. None cared whether he saw his judgement in a courtroom or in hell but one was sure to come soon.

So there they waited until someone would come to give them some news, some hope, that their world had not been completely turned upside down.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 21

He wasn't sure how much more he could take. Already it was nearly 5am and hardly anyone that had chosen to stay at the hospital had gotten any sleep. A few of the guys managed to doze off and on, curled up on the increasingly uncomfortable couches and chairs of their waiting room. Stephanie had long ago tried to convince them all to head back to their hotels to rest but many stayed behind, momentarily pushing aside all thoughts of their post-Mania obligations the next day.

Punk had been going from the windows to the hallway and back again ever since Callie was taken into surgery. Given the current circumstances, he should be exhausted, both mentally and physically, but his nervous energy kept getting the best of him. They had all been anxiously awaiting news from the doctors about Callie's condition but no word so far. The athletes had been warned that the surgery could take several hours, if not longer. As long as Callie's body held out, the surgeons would continue their work. Punk wasn't sure how much longer he could hang around the waiting room without anything to do. He already felt like the walls were beginning to close in around him; the air becoming stale and suffocating.

Jeff had wandered off about an hour ago and hadn't been seen since. Initially, Punk was okay with that. The quiet had afforded him a reprieve from the chaos prevalent since Wade's appearance at Wrestlemania. It didn't take long, though, for him to realize that the din had been the only barrier between him and his thoughts. In the quiet, his worries, fears and questions voiced themselves with no care to their volume or detail. As he stood looking out of the very window John's gaze had fallen from earlier, he once again replayed all of the events that had caused his near depressive mania.

What stood out first and foremost in his memory was the look on Wade's face as he stood over Callie's limp body; that crooked smirk, the gleeful sparkle in his eye. Punk shuddered slightly at the memory. Wade knew exactly what he was doing and had set it up to where there was no way he wasn't going to get caught.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Punk finally had enough. He opened the door as quietly as he could and slipped out into the brightly lit hallway, looking to the left, the right and left again before deciding on a direction. He had no particular destination in mind but, right now, anywhere was better than that room.

At that very same moment, elsewhere in the hospital, Randy was doing some roaming of his own. John never rejoined them, even ater Callie was moved by the surgeons. While Randy was well aware of Cena's probable need for some space, it seemed odd that he hadn't at least checked in. Seeing as how he still had John's phone, he wasn't going to be able to find him that way and it seemed as if he'd searched the entire medical complex already. Surely, John wouldn't have left the building when there could be news about Callie at any time, would he?

Rounding several more corners, Orton spied his second favorite McMahon partially down the hall, conversing in hushed tones with a very frazzled looking personal assistant. Coming up on them, Randy took a moment from his own worries to feel sorry for the blonde woman. Her shaking hands and unsure tone broadcasted to everyone around her that she was in over her head. As she hastily wrote down some notes and hurried off to complete her tasks, Orton realized there were worse things than sitting and waiting. He could be having to deal with everything else.

"Hey Steph," he greeted when he had her attention. The billion dollar princess looked like she's been through the wringer as well.

"Hey! Ya'll okay? Any word yet?"

Randy shook his head, sorry to disappoint someone yet again. "No, she's still upstairs. Been looking for John though. You haven't seen him have you?"

"Unfortunately, I have." Randy didn't like the way that sounded and Stephanie let out a deep breath before going on. "He's in there right now," she continued, pointing to a door a few steps down the hallway. "Maybe he'll let you go in and talk to him."

"Let me? What happened?" Looking around, Orton took notice of a few details that had escaped him while he's been sympathizing with Steph's assistant. Like the four security guards busy comparing bruises and the upturned equipment cart lying below many large holes in the beige plaster of the walls.

"I don't know exactly." She answered. "He was in there for quite a while with the doctor from downstairs. Out of nowhere it sounded like a freight train was going through the building." Steph's eyes widened as she heard the sound once more in her memory. "He just lost it Randy. He trashed the room in there," she pointed towards the door that separated them from Cal's brother. "Then he stormed out here. They all tried to restrain him but, well, you know how freakishly strong John is." Randy mentally winced, remembering some of the more hellacious bumps and bruises he'd nursed at the hands of Cena in the ring. "They tried to sedate him but he wasn't having it. He went back in there and hasn't spoken to us since."

"Wait." Randy shook his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't they just let him go? He probably wanted to check on Cal or..."

"Randal." Stephanie's tone stopped him midsentence and as he looked down at her, fear still shined in her eyes. "He was going to find Wade."

...

The 24 hours after Wrestlemania were always a blur for the chairman and his company but this year was going to be the one that really tested his limits. Just one hour ago, with still no word from Callie's doctors, Vince made his hardest decision of the year. RAW would go on as scheduled, even if they were short some of their most popular superstars. If this had been any other episode, any other show, he could have easily pulled the taping in lieu of the replay of the HOF ceremony but this was the post-Mania RAW supershow and it couldn't be let go.

They'd managed to leave most of the show's script alone, adding or subtracting only as necessary to coincide with the previous night's events. Of course, a few scenes had to be written out altogether, such as John's appearance to bask in the glow of yet another title retention and Batista setting the groundwork for one final feud before leaving the company. All of the angles had been covered except for one. The elephant that stood in every room Vince entered; the taunting circus clown that danced behind his eyelids. How to explain to everyone what they saw?

An entire room full of WWE personnel from varying departments had agonized for hours over that very question. It was nearly impossible to write into the storyline without Wade there for a rivalry. Fans would be expecting some very severe retaliation from John but Wade would never again be allowed inside a WWE ring, or any other if Vince had his way...and he always got his way. The media coverage would dissolve any illusion of a plot line anyway.

After several soul-searching hours, and limited permission from John's family, he made the only call that he could. Vincent Kennedy McMahon was going to tell the truth.

...

After hearing about John's earlier breakdown, Randy wasn't quite sure what to expect when he slowly opened the door and peered around the room. Oddly, the damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, considering what Cena was capable of. Orton had envisioned torn walls, light fixtures hanging and broken windows; remnants of a man unchained. Instead, the room showed itself for what it was. A venting tool for someone who'd held in too much, who's emotion had exploded forth with no warning to the soul that was supposed to be in control of them. Chairs were overturned, pictures hung askew and three fist-sized holes stood out next to the door. The room had only been a starting point, though, and all of John's true aggression had been saved for another target.

John. He was in the far corner, leaning against the wall with his arms resting on his knees. His gaze never wandered from some imaginary spot across the carpet, even when Randy repeatedly uttered his name. Closing the door, he navigated the overturned furniture and slid down the wall to sit next to his friend. They remained in silence at first, Randal scrutinizing Cena's emotionless face and bloody knuckles. "Hey. You need something? Some bandages? Water?"

"Wade." He replied in a robotic tone.

Randy sighed for the millionth time that night. "John, you know you can't go see him," he tried to explain. "you're no help to Cal if you're in prison. That's where Barrett belongs. You'd never get near him anyway. The cops AND the McMahons are having him watched."

"He needs to be punished."

"John, look..."

"He raped her."

Randy was stunned into momentary silence at the confession. Of course, looking back, it should have been an obvious possibility but normal men's minds just shouldn't work that way. "Callie? Wade...he..."

"I know." John cut into Orton's stammering. "At first, I couldn't bring myself to say it either. When I tried," he waved his arm to gesture around the room. "This happened."

"They're absolutely sure?"

"Positive." John rubbed his eyes, hesitating before indulging any more information. When he did continue, his voice was shaky, cracking nearly every other word. "Who knows how many times but the doc...he said it was definitely more than a few. Probably the whole fucking time he had her." Tears slid down his cheeks once again as he tried not to envision his baby sister being violated in such a way. Randy, too, looked to be on the verge of tears, lowering his eyes out of a loss for anything to say. "So Wade kidnapped her, tortured her, starved her, drugged her and raped her. Then he drags her into the ring and tries to murder her in front of millions of people. He needs to die."

"He will John." Randy looked straight into Cena's blue orbs. "But first, he's going to have to live to regret what he's done."

**So that's the end of that chapter folks! Let me know what you think and I'm always up for ideas on where this story should go! I want to know what you guys want to happen! I've also already planned out quite a few new twists and turns that these guys are going to have to go through (seriously, even I'm going to have trouble keeping up with some of these plot twists until the very end!) R&R please!**


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